


The Rarest Type of Seer

by Jeni27



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter RPF
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-04-12
Updated: 2017-02-01
Packaged: 2017-12-08 06:45:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 47,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/758302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jeni27/pseuds/Jeni27
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fortune tellers are a dime a dozen in the muggle world, and there have been many a witch or wizard who have claimed to have the 'sight', though most of them never really did.  But a true seer, someone who really can see into the future - now they were rare.  Some of those seers had a special gift to see specific events in the past and know exactly how it happened without using a pensieve.  Then there are the empaths.  Those people who can feel other's emotions and hear their thoughts.  That's a hard life indeed.<br/>There is one type of person that can do all of this.  They can see into the future, put the pieces of a past event together, and hear and feel other people's thoughts and emotions.  That person is known as the 'Rarest and most Gifted seer.'  Those people are few and far between generations and it is said that they only have this gift because of a curse that was placed on one of the first magical creatures to walk this land.<br/>The people of legend are searching for this person to put an end to their punishment, and while they do that, a nefarious group of people also search for this seer.  For she holds one of the greatest magics in the world and they want it for their own purposes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Crazier Things have Happened

Chapter 1

The blonde (it was more of a silver color, really) haired man let himself into the house that he had called a second home for the almost the last ten years.

He was emotionally drained, physically tired, and in general at the end of his proverbial rope. He wanted – no, he needed the homey comforts of Potter Place. Malfoy Manor was a cold and unwelcoming place for the mood he was in and he knew, even if he only admitted it to himself, that his bleak mood would only become more depressed if he went there. Besides, there was the chance that his mother or grandmother, or worse both, might be there, and they would ask questions that he didn’t feel the need to answer. 

It wasn’t like they really cared anyway, they were just happy that Scorpius had found a way to bring their societal standings a bit more up to par. Not that his family’s social standing had been the first thought in his mind when he had asked the red headed vixen out, but still, they would not be happy to find out that he had broken off his almost three year relationship.

He tried not to focus on the fact that his pride was more hurt than his heart. He ignored the niggling memory in the back of his mind of James Potter standing in one of the corners in the living room of the Burrow with a little girl he had only seen a couple times before, shaking his head at him when Scorpius and SHE announced their new relationship. 

His frown deepened. The more he tried not to think about that particular memory, the more it stuck out in his mind. He didn’t even know why either. It’s not like anything exciting happened during it. He supposed that it had something to do with James actually showing something other than indifference to him. He usually didn’t care about anything that Scorpius did. Normally the oldest Potter boy ignored Albus and his friends, happily keeping to his own little ‘clique’ in the family. 

What struck him the most about the memory though, was the little girl. She could not have been more than twelve or thirteen and she stood about a foot shorter than James. Her face was heart shaped and framed by very dark hair that was pushed back behind slightly pointed ears, showing off her green eyes. A very striking, pierce-you-through-the-soul-green. (He might have been being a bit dramatic, but he knew he had never seen eyes that color before. Not even Albus or Mr. Potter had eyes that green.) 

He supposed she was one of the many cousins, though he didn’t know which one or who she might belong to. He had seen her before, whenever he came over, she could always be found with Molly Weasley and Lysander and Lorcan Scamander, and sometimes joined by Dominique. He never saw her talk to anybody else though, unless it was an adult, and even then, he didn’t think he could think of a time he had actually seen that. So, for her to be standing next to James, looking like they were plotting the end of the world, was something of an anomaly. She whispered something to James, causing him to laugh loudly. She grinned at him and bounded off, however, not before he shot a knowing smirk at Scorpius.

The strangest part of the whole ordeal, to Scorpius’s mind anyway, was that Rose, who was happily clinging to his arm, seemed to tighten her grip making him wince in pain. It was almost as if she was scared of the other girl, but he shook that thought from his head and moved happily forward into the room, brushing the entire incident to the side.

Now, however, as he made his way into his most favorite room in the Potter’s house, he wondered at the memory. He supposed it was a nice distraction from his current issues. It was nice to focus on something besides betrayal. 

The family room/parlour had always been one of his favorite rooms in Potter Place. It was a large room decorated in mint green and off white tones. The large windows were draped with silk curtains that were always pulled open allowing the sunlight to filter into the room, causing it to look even bigger. There was a fireplace on the opposite wall from the door. On the mantle were snapshots of the Potters and their family and friends. Scorpius had felt very special the first time he realized there was a picture of himself up there. A matching couch, love seat and large two person chair sat in a semi-circle around a glass table giving an air of intimacy to the room. On the walls were large canvas paintings of far off places and abstract designs that made the mind wonder. 

Scorpius didn’t know why, but he often found himself in this room whenever he was upset about something, or he simply just wanted to get away from Rose and Albus. They never wanted to be in this room, so it was a convenient place for him to hide out. It’s not like they didn’t know where to look if they really needed him. The one time he had actually mentioned how much he loved this room in front of Mr. and Mrs. Potter, the latter had grinned so wide, Scorpius thought her face might break. Mr. Potter had merely rose his eyebrow and grunted. But, whenever Scorpius would ask Al or Rose why they didn’t like the room, Albus’s eyes would become shuttered and he would change the subject quickly. Rose never deigned to answer, period. Whatever their reasoning, it didn’t stop Scorpius from coming here when he needed to, and Mrs. Potter never stopped him. 

The Malfoy scion stopped short as he was about to cross the threshold of the room. The curtains were pulled back as they always were, letting in the winter sun, and there was a crackling fire in the fireplace. Since this room was so rarely used, Scorpius had not been expecting any of this. What really caught his attention though, was the girl sitting, curled up in the two person chair.

Her dark red hair was pulled up into a messy updo, a colored pencil sticking through it. Her jean clad legs were curled under her in a criss-cross style. She wore a deep blue long sleeved jumper and she was focusing most intently on a book of some sort in her lap. The pencil she held in her left hand was flying across the page. He took note that a pair of blue platform combat boots were sitting on the floor neatly underneath the table.

As he moved to the loveseat directly opposite the girl, he thought sardonically, ‘Well, just make yourself at home, why don’t you?’ Of course, he immediately felt the irony of his thoughts since he had no idea who this girl was and for all he knew she could be James’s latest girl of the month. Scorpius knew for a fact that the Potters were not expecting any visitors for the holidays. Not even Lily, which for some strange reason had upset Albus. It wasn’t like he (read: Albus) had ever cared before, when Lily didn’t come home for the holidays. 

Scorpius couldn’t be sure, but he would swear Mystery Girl’s lips curled into a smirk briefly, before falling back into a frown, as if she could hear his thoughts. The blonde flopped himself down on the loveseat, his grey eyes continuously studying the myriad of emotions that crossed over the girls face as she drew in her book furiously. 

She, however, studiously ignored him, which slightly irritated him, as he was not used to being ignored by anyone. He knew she had heard him come in the room; he had not been quiet when doing so. 

As he watched her face he caught hints of anger, confusion, and hurt. There was also an underlying sense of resignment. He had never been very good at reading other people’s emotions; then again, most people he knew didn’t wear their emotions on their sleeves. 

They sat in a companionable silence, her pencil flying across the paper and the fire crackling the only sounds in the room. He sighed deeply letting all his stress and worries of the past few days fall off his shoulders for the time being. Lying back in the chair, Scorpius decided it would be nice to just rest for a minute. He had not been getting the best sleep since the – incident. 

He missed the look of pure amusement that crossed over the girls face and the raised eyebrow that would have reminded him of the wizarding world’s savior. 

Scorpius wasn’t sure how long he had ‘rested’ his eyes before he heard a light, airy voice say, “If you were looking for Albus, he’s upstairs in his room with Rose.” 

He groaned in frustration as all his woes came back at once, hitting him like a brick wall. “And, I was having such a lovely lie down,” he said bitterly. He sat forward and put his head in his hands rubbing furiously. When he looked up, he was met with a pair of amused green eyes looking at him curiously. It was the same striking, pierce-you-through-the-soul-green that he had seen almost three years ago. Scorpius had never understood the meaning of the word ‘dumbstruck’ until this very moment. 

“Um…, I – I’m not really here to see them,” he began nervously. And then he wondered to himself about being nervous and why was he stuttering like a fool and why did he feel the need to explain his presence in being here to this little slip of a girl. She couldn’t be more than fifteen, and really what the heck was she doing here at the Potter’s house anyway? He was about to voice these very questions when he was interrupted by Albus Potter, who stormed into the room with Rose Weasley on his heels.

Al’s face was a storm cloud of anger. His own green eyes flashing in irritation, and Scorpius had no doubt in his mind that whatever Albus was so upset over, it was all untruths told by Rose. 

Rose looked as if she had been crying her pretty brown eyes out. Her normally sleek brown hair was a mess and she was dressed in sweat pants and a t-shirt. Scorpius’s heart would have gone out to her, if she hadn’t brought this onto herself. 

He steeled his face into an emotionless mask and waited for the torrent that was Albus Potter to begin. The boy may have been an exact replica of his father, but he was definitely a Weasley. “WHAT THE HELL SCORPIUS!? WHAT DID ROSE DO, THAT YOU HAD TO BE SUCH AN ASS TO HER!?”

He had been expecting something like this from Al, after all he was pretty protective of Rose, but he couldn’t help but be just a little disappointed that Albus would automatically assume the worst of Scorpius. Plus, Albus and Scorpius always made it a point to stay out of each other’s business when it came to the girls they were dating. He understood that this was Albus’s cousin, but he felt that this really was none of Al’s business. Especially since, Scorpius knew that everything Rose had told Al was a lie. It had to be; if Rose had told the truth then Al wouldn’t be yelling at Scorpius, and Rose would be on the receiving end of Al’s wrath. Well, maybe not his full wrath. 

It seemed that Scorpius was not to get a word in though, because once again, he was interrupted by someone. He had momentarily forgotten about the other occupant of the room, but was grateful none-the-less when she interrupted and in a rather bored voice, said, “Maybe you should take this to your room, Albus. Especially since I was enjoying the peace and quiet so much. Better yet, you and Rosie Posy – “Rose cringed at the name, making Scorpius grin maliciously. He had never heard her called that before. “- go and find something else to do. Liiiike… I don’t know, dunking your heads in the snow and leaving them there for longer than fifteen minutes.” She tilted her head slightly as if in deep thought, stopping her drawing for a brief moment, “huh. That actually sounds like it might be fun. Go try it, and then let me know if it was cold.”

The look of utter shock, incredulity, and terror on Albus and Rose’s faces, was pure heaven to Scorpius. He had never seen anything, ANYTHING; shut his two friends up quicker. And the girl just sat in her chair, still drawing, as if she had said nothing at all.

Rose’s face quickly morphed into a look of pure contempt, while Albus seemed to be completely at a loss for words.

“Lily?” Albus asked quietly. His voice was a mere whisper, all the anger gone from it. Scorpius looked sharply at the girl. There was no way she could be Lily Potter. Not that he would really know, he couldn’t remember if he had actually ever met her, but still, this girl looked nothing like any of the Potters, let alone the Weasleys. Plus, wasn’t Lily supposed to be about seventeen, he still held that this girl was younger than that. 

“What are you doing here?” Rose sneered, taking over the conversation when it seemed that her cousin was not going to continue. 

The girl, Lily, shrugged her delicate shoulders, and glanced up at Rose with sheer devilry dancing in her eyes. “I live here, Rosie. Why do you think I’m here? It is the holidays after all. Or,” and here Lily lowered her voice as if to impart a deep, dark secret, “did you think I wouldn’t come back at such an…opportune time?” She made sure to say the last part of the sentence with relish, making Rose lose some of the contempt from her face. 

“Then again, I can kind of understand why you of all people wouldn’t want me here. I mean, we wouldn’t want me to spill any of those lovely little secrets of yours, now would we?” Rose’s pale skin was almost white when Lily finished speaking, and it made Scorpius wonder what exactly Lily might know. The dark haired girl, he really wanted to know what exact color her hair was, red or black, stood up from her chair, unconsciously stretching. She wasn’t very tall, Scorpius noted, it was no wonder he thought she was so much younger than she actually was. 

She closed her book, (he realized it was a sketchbook, and wondered idly why he didn’t realize that before,) and dropped it and the pencil unceremoniously down on the table. Turning to face Albus and Rose directly, she grinned, the devil that was in her eyes was now in her very smile. She was pure evil, Scorpius decided.

“No worries, Rosie Posy. I won’t get in your way too horribly, badly. I’m only here ‘cause Albus was missing me so very much. At least that’s what Mum said when she wrote to me asking me to come home. I didn’t believe her, of course. Albus wouldn’t miss me even if I were dead. Isn’t that right, Alby?” 

Scorpius snorted. Albus had paled almost as much as Rose and it was apparent to Scorpius that Lily had overheard that particular conversation. He couldn’t say that it had been one of the nicer ones that they had had. Rose was forever going on about how much of a pain Lily was and Albus generally allowed her to do it. He had even gone so far once as to say that exact thing about not missing Lily. Scorpius didn’t know why they were so mean to Lily; it wasn’t like she was ever around anyway. Then again he didn’t really understand the Weasley/Potter family dynamics either. Sometimes, he felt that there was more drama than there needed to be. His family was definitely less complicated, so long as you overlooked the whole Death Eater past, and the rabid attempts at social climbing of his mother and grandmother. 

“Yes well, what are you doing down here?” Rose asked, gesturing to the room around them, and getting some of her fire back. “I mean, you don’t usually hang out down here, do you. You usually stay in your own precious ‘tower’ room, and leave everyone else alone.”

Lily’s grin turned into a full blown smile that almost knocked Scorpius off his feet. She truly was a stunning creature. The evil glint was still in her eyes, however, when she said, “This is my own private parlour Rose. Or did you forget that?” 

“It is?” Scorpius asked, confused. ‘Great,’ he thought, ‘I’ve been coming to Lily Potter’s personal sanctuary for HOW long now?’ He was surprised she hadn’t said anything to him when he came in. 

She merely glanced at him and waved him away as if it was nothing that he was there. He felt oddly relieved that she didn’t seem to care. “Ah well, I suppose I could tell you that I’m grounded, and that is why I’m sitting down here. I’m mulling over my, shall we say, very naughty deeds.” The green eyed girl chuckled at her own words, though whatever the joke was, it passed right over everyone else’s heads.

Scorpius could tell that Lily had stunned her older brother and cousin once again. He remembered Rose once complaining about how Lily could get away with anything, and Albus saying that it wasn’t really that she got away with things; it was more that she just did what she was told to do, just in her own way. It was a rare thing for her to rebel. “What did you do to get grounded Lils?” Albus asked curiously, apparently he had recovered from Lily’s verbal onslaught. 

Lily shrugged and flat out ignored his question as she grabbed her boots from under the table and started walking out of the room. “It was nice chatting with you guys, but now, I have places to be, things to see, yadda, yadda, yadda!” She said cheekily. “Tell Mum for me, will you? She’ll know where I’m at!”

“Wait, wait, wait!” Albus practically growled at her, moving to stand between her and the doorway. Scorpius could honestly say that he was thoroughly amused with this turn of events. He figured there was nothing better than watching Potters argue. Although, it had always been James and Albus doing the fighting. “WHERE are you going? Didn’t you just say that you were grounded?”

Lily sighed at him in an exasperated manner and raised her eyebrow at him. “Really Al, I didn’t know you cared,” she said in a saccharine sweet voice, patting his cheek. “If you must know, brother dear, I am grounded.” Her lips twisted up ironically, and she sidestepped her brother walking out the door, but they heard her when she said, “From my room.”

“WHAT!?” Rose exploded. “Who does that? How do you get grounded from your room? Really Albus, she’s a nut – job! How do you even deal with her?”

Albus flopped down on the couch with exhaustion. “Quit calling my sister names, Rose. Not only is it not right, but she’s your cousin just as much as I am.” 

Scorpius noticed that Lily had left her sketchbook behind, and was reaching for it, just as a voice from the doorway said, “Well! It’s about time you started defending your sister, Albus. And, Rose, if you can’t speak about your cousin nicely in this house, then I will have to ask you to leave. I don’t care if you are my best friend’s daughter.”

Rose flushed deeply mumbling something about being sorry as Ginny Potter bustled into the room. Mrs. Potter gave Rose a meaningful look. “I don’t believe you are, Rosie,” she said. “It’s of no matter though. I’m sure you will be one day.” She sighed and looked around the room, noticing Scorpius for the first time. Ginny gave him a genuine smile, and Scorpius wondered how it was that he hadn’t noticed the resemblance between mother and daughter before. Then again, it was only the smile that was the same, so there you had it. 

“I thought I heard you come in, Scorpius. You can stay for dinner if you like. I believe we’re having pizza tonight. Oh! Is that Lily’s sketchbook?” she asked, somewhat surprised. “She never leaves that laying around. Her pictures tend to be very personal you know,” she continued. She took the sketchbook off the table before Scorpius could so much as touch it. “I’ll just take that with me and make sure she gets it back. There’s no telling what kind of ammunition you three might try to find on her from these pictures.”

Albus and Rose were looking at her as if she had two heads, and Scorpius didn’t blame them. It wasn’t like Mrs. Potter to ramble on. Her comments about the sketchbook being of a personal nature, made Scorpius want to see Lily’s drawings even more. This was a rather queer feeling to him. He wasn’t the type of person to want to pry into other people’s private things. He barely even knew the girl, which made the entire situation even stranger to him. 

He realized that Ginny was giving him a strange look, and then noticed that he was staring rather hard at the book, as if he could see through the pages. “Dinner, Scorpius?” she asked, bringing him back to her original question. There was an ironic twist to her lips. It was the same twist that Lily had used earlier. 

“What? Oh, yeah, dinner would be great, Mrs. Potter. Thanks.” 

Ginny took the sketchbook and pencil and was headed back to the entrance when Albus spoke up from the couch, “Mum?” He stopped for a minute as if gathering the courage to say whatever it was that was on his mind.

“Yes, dear?” She prompted him.

Albus took a deep breath, muttered to himself about not being sure he really wanted to know the answer and then asked, “Why is Lily really home, and where exactly did she go just now?”

Mrs. Potter stood in contemplative silence for a moment. “I sent her an owl asking her to come home for the holidays, although I think she was planning on coming anyway. It’s been a while since she’s been here. And to answer your second question, though I don’t think it’s any of your business, I believe she mentioned something about breaking up with her boyfriend for being a, and I quote, ‘Narcissistic, Cheating-Ass of a Scumbag’, and then she was going to make her way over to the Auror department to say hello to your brother, father, and Teddy. And, yes, I did get after her for her language, Albus. I’m not as unfair as you and your cousin seem to think I am.”

Then she was gone. Probably to get the pizza for dinner. 

Scorpius was not laughing. Not at all. Ok, so he was, but he was trying really hard not to be laughing. He avoided looking at the shocked expressions on his friends’ faces, and determined that if he got the chance to see her later, he would most definitely thank Lily Potter for a most entertaining day.

“Quit laughing, Scor,” Albus groaned from his seat. His head was in his hands, and Scorpius almost felt sorry for him. Then he thought about Albus coming in and screaming at him earlier and decided that he wasn’t going to feel too terribly bad for the black haired boy.

Rose threw herself down dramatically in the two person chair, and groaned as if she were in pain. Come to think of it, she probably was, of an internal and emotional sort. This thought made Scorpius grin even more. He wasn’t a malicious or sadistic person, but he wanted Rose to feel some sort of discomfort. She wasn’t near as sweet as she tried to make everyone believe, and he was pretty sure that most people had figured that out.

“Well, isn’t this just great!? How long do you think we’ll have to deal with ‘Perfect Little Lilsie’? I, for one –“ Rose’s rant was cut off when the fireplace blazed green and a blonde girl with laughing blue eyes spun out of it gracefully. “What the – Just who the heck do you think you are coming into Potter Place without an invitation!?”

Albus’s head came up from his hands and he gasped loudly. Number one, no one was able to use this fireplace, unless they had express permission, and number two, the only person who did have that type of permission, he did not want to see. She had a tendency to be even more protective of his little sister than even James, and that was saying something. On top of that, she was the one girl in the world that Albus actually, well – liked. Yeah, it was like that. And the last time she saw him, she had made him feel as if he were lower than the scum of the Earth. 

She was tall, and her face was shaped like a pixie. She was wearing a short skirt over a pair of leggings, with a sweater, and carrying what could only be assumed as an overnight bag.

Her blue eyes locked with Albus and she gave a wide grin. Never breaking eye contact with Scorpius’s best friend, she addressed them all saying simply, “I was invited.” And then she promptly walked out of the room. 

“Cham.” Albus croaked. 

“Huh?” 

“Who?” Rose and Scorpius asked at the same time. 

Albus sighed and ran his hands through his hair. “Her name,” he began quietly, and then shook his head as if this would help to get his thoughts to process after seeing her again for the first time in a very long while. “Her name,” he began again, “is Cham Johenssen. She’s Lily’s friend.” 

Rose scoffed, and Scorpius was sure that she was about to make a scathing comment, but was halted when Albus gave her a meaningful look. “She is Lily’s best friend.” He emphasized. “James is like a kitten compared to Cham when it comes to protectiveness of Lily. I would watch what I say about Lils around her, if I were you, Rose.”

Albus stood and looked at them both. “Let’s get out of here. This room isn’t the best place to be when Lily isn’t in here to give us some sort of protection.”

“I come in here all the time without her.” Scorpius said raising his eyebrow in question at Albus.

Albus waved his hand at Scorpius much the same way that Lily had earlier. “You’re special,” he said simply. With that cryptic message he walked out of the room, presumably to find food.

Scorpius, who it must be said, refused to be left alone with Rose Weasley any longer than was necessary, stood up and followed him. He heard Rose screech something and the next thing he knew, she was racing past him at full speed, as if the hounds of hell were at her heels.

‘What, the hell…?’ Scorpius wondered.


	2. Strange Thoughts and Meanderings

The Rarest Type of Seer

 

Chapter 2

Scorpius sat in Albus’s room pondering what dinner would be like with Lily Potter there. He realized that he could not remember ever sitting down to the Potter’s table with her there. She had always been ‘away’. (He sometimes wondered where ‘away’ was, but usually ended up regarding his thoughts as unimportant. He certainly never voiced them aloud to Albus. He figured his curiosity was best left unsaid.) 

Dinner with the Potters was always a pretty laid back affair. Scorpius could not remember a single meal where he had ever felt nervous sitting down to eat with them. Oh. Wait, there was the first time. But he figured that one hardly signified. The way he saw it, anybody would have been nervous to be sitting down to eat with the savior of the wizarding world.

As he sat down to that first meal, he tried to remember all his manners and etiquette that his mother and aunt and grandmother had been drilling into his head since he was a very young child. Scorpius sat in his chair across from Teddy Lupin, (who was looking entirely too amused for his own good,) with his back straight and a blank expression on his face, hoping and praying that he didn’t make a fool of himself, or upset Mr. Potter in any way.

Before he left his house that evening his grandmother informed him that he had better be on his best behavior. (Not that he wouldn’t have been anyway, but that was not the point.) He was a guest in the Potter house, and he had better make a good impression on them. It was at that point that he realized his grandmother’s social climbing ways. It wasn’t like he had never noticed them before; it was just that he had never been part of her schemes, whether it was directly or indirectly, and he could honestly say that he did not like it.

He remembered sitting there fidgeting with his hands in his lap while waiting for the little house elf, he thought her name might have been Winky, to place the food on the table. Albus kept shooting him funny looks every time he moved. It wasn’t like the Malfoy scion to be so nervous, and the tension in the room was so thick, you could cut it with a butcher knife.

Scorpius was used to polite and quiet dignity at the dinner table, so it was quite a shock to him when the food was all placed on the table, and Mrs. Potter looked at them all, quirked an eyebrow at Teddy, and said, “Well, aren’t you boys going to eat?” 

As the boys dug in to the wonderful food at the table and the chatter seemed to take on a life of its own, Scorpius felt as if he were being stared at. Looking up at the head of the table, he realized that it was Mr. Potter that had been staring him down. Not knowing what to do, he returned the gaze with a questioning look of his own, in the back of his mind praying the whole time that Albus’s dad did not hold the same prejudice’s that Rose’s dad did against his family.

Mrs. Potter, having noticed the staring contest going on, stopped her conversation with Teddy, and waved her hand in front of her husband’s face, and broke him out of his trance. “I think you’re scaring the poor boy, honey,” she whispered. Of course, they all heard what she said making Teddy and James bust out laughing while Albus groaned. Scorpius felt his skin heat up, and he just knew that he looked as if he had just spent hours in the sun. 

“So sorry,” Harry said with a self-deprecating grin. “I tend to get lost in thought sometimes, and not really pay attention to what I’m doing.” He gave Scorpius a genuine smile and that, it seemed, was that. 

He shook his head at his reflections and his thoughts circled back to Lily Potter. He wondered briefly what the great mystery surrounding the youngest Potter was, and why Albus was so wretched to her. He also wanted to know why it was that Rose seemed to dislike her so much, though he figured a good deal of that had to do with jealousy. (For the life of him, he couldn’t figure out what Rose had to be jealous of, but who was he to know how the minds of girls worked.) Scorpius also could not disregard some of those looks of utter fear that had crossed Rose’s face when she first saw her cousin. Oh, sure, she had covered them up rather quickly, but he had seen them just the same.

He was pondering all this when Albus came into the room, looking broodier than ever. The green eyed boy made his way over to his desk and proceeded to bang his head on it a few times. “Look, Albus,” Scorpius began, “About Rose, -” 

Albus cut him off, “Save it for later, Scor. I don’t want to talk about it right now. Not with Lily and her – friend here.” He sneered the word ‘friend’, making it sound like a bad thing, and adding more things to Scorpius’s list of questions. ‘Just what exactly did this Cham girl do to Albus? And, more importantly,’ to Scorpius’s mind anyway, ’how in the heck was it that Al had met her, and he, (Scorpius) had not?’ He voiced this last question out loud, but all he got for his troubles was a grunt in response.

Scorpius looked at Albus for the first time that day. I mean, he really looked at him. Out of all the Potter kids, Albus was the one that ‘wore his emotions on his sleeve’. And even then, most people would not be able to actually see what he was feeling. Maybe it was because they had been friends for so long that Scorpius could read him better than most. 

Albus looked tired, worn, and beat out. Scorpius had to wonder how much of Albus’s mental strain was from Rose, and how much was from the surprise of seeing his sister after so long. 

There was a shriek and a clatter that came from downstairs making both boys jump up. But, before either of them made a move to the door, Rose stormed in looking angrier than ever and Scorpius swore that there was steam coming out of her ears. “What’s the matter now?” Albus asked her, exasperated.

“Nothing,” she said shortly. “I just came up here to tell you that Aunt Ginny says dinner is just about ready and you two need to get down there.” She turned to leave just as abruptly as she had come in, but stopped at the door briefly. “Oh, and James and Teddy are here also.”

Albus groaned. “It just gets better and better,” he muttered standing up, “that would explain the shriek though. I bet it was Lily greeting her ‘favorite’ brother.” He used air quotes around the word ‘favorite’, and there was a sadness in his green eyes that was barely perceptible, but there non-the-less.

Scorpius watched him curiously. He wanted to say something that might ease his friend’s tension, but he had no idea what he could possibly say to make the situation better. 

Albus sighed and then squared his shoulders as if getting ready for battle. “Scorpius,” Scorpius stopped on his way to the door at the seriousness in Al’s voice. He turned with a questioning look on his face, imploring silently for Albus to continue. “You need to keep your thoughts to yourself tonight at dinner,” he said cryptically.

“What do you mean by that?”

“It means exactly that. Keep your mind guarded, practice basic occlumency, reign in your thoughts, whatever you want to call it,” and with that said, a frustrated Albus left the room.

~Line Break~

Pizza, he remembered, is what Mrs. Potter had said they were having for dinner that night. He wasn’t expecting it be homemade pizza, though. Nor was he expecting Rose to be scowling so severely over the fact that it was. At least, he assumed that’s what she was scowling at. It could have been the fact that she was sitting directly across from Lily, and Lily, it seemed, was having fun making faces at her cousin when she thought there wasn’t anyone looking.

‘How very mature of her,’ he thought idly. Lily suddenly met his eyes, and he saw a flash of irritation cross in her own green eyes as if she heard him. She looked away quickly enough and he remembered Albus’s warning about keeping his thoughts to himself. 

Scorpius shook off the warning and took in the dining room around him, and the delicious looking food on the table, all the while listening to the conversation that surrounded him.

The oblong table that usually sat six had been magically expanded to accommodate not only himself and Rose, but James’s most recent girlfriend, and Lily’s blonde haired friend. Scorpius was unsure as to why James would bring his latest girl to a ‘family’ dinner so soon after just beginning to date her. He shrugged that thought away just as quickly as he did his earlier ones on Albus. What James did was his business. Besides, rumor had it that James didn’t care if his latest fling met his parents. It was only serious if he introduced them to his baby sister. This made him wonder if James had known Lily was even home.

As Scorpius looked around him, he realized that this was the most lively he had ever seen the Potters. Ginny Potter, Scorpius knew was not only the love of Harry’s life, but the glue that held their family together and everyone in the wizarding world knew this. Apparently though, there was a well-kept secret that Lily Potter was the true heart and soul of this family. She brought a life and vitality to it that Scorpius had never seen before.

“Pineapple and Cheese! EW, Lily! Why can’t you be normal?” Rose squealed, bringing Scorpius out of his thoughts. It seemed that Rose’s indignant words silenced everyone in the room. Mr. and Mrs. Potter looked at Rose with identical questioning faces, while Teddy and James looked like they wanted to smack her. Lily’s friend, Cham, Scorpius thought her name was, was sitting on the left of Lily and looked like she wanted nothing more than to help Teddy and James out with whatever punishment they might have for their younger cousin, and James’s girlfriend, Amanda, just looked confused. Scorpius glanced over at Albus, who was directly across from Cham, only to get a shrug in reply.

Lily grinned impishly and shot a look at Cham before turning to Rose, “My darling girl,” she practically simpered, “when are you going to realize that being ‘normal’, as you put it, is not necessarily a virtue? It rather denotes a lack of courage.” (1) She grinned triumphantly, and turned back to her pizza while Rose sat in her chair next to Teddy and spluttered. 

Cham burst out laughing. “Oh Greece, Lils,” she said trying to catch her breath, “I can’t believe you even remembered that line! We watched that movie ages ago!” Lily smiled brilliantly at her friend and Scorpius had to suck in some extra air at the transformation.

He had known from his previous acquaintance of earlier that day with her that Lily was a rather pretty girl, but this smile was so genuine that it lit up the entire room. ‘And now, I’m getting poetic’, he thought ruefully. 

“Lily.” There was a warning in Mr. Potter’s voice, but Scorpius could see the humor that danced in his eyes and the grin that he was trying to repress. Lily shrugged at her father, accepting the warning for what it was, but not promising to heed it just the same.

Teddy cleared his throat, and the conversation started back up around the table. 

Scorpius didn’t really pay much attention to any of it, simply allowing the conversation to wash over him and losing himself to his thoughts. He didn’t know what he was going to do about Rose. It was obvious that she did not tell Albus the truth about why they were broken up, most likely spinning a tale of lies to him. 

He wished for nothing more than some proof of her cheating to show Albus that it was entirely his precious cousin’s fault. Granted, Scorpius had been thinking about breaking up with her for a while, and this had really just been a means to an end, but still, she could have had the decency to break up with him.

He felt lucky that Lily had stepped in when she did earlier that day. He wasn’t sure if Al would have kicked him out of the house or not, and the distraction of his sister seemed to be just what was needed to ease some of Al’s anger.

“…So, the question is really, should they blow it up or not,” he heard Teddy say. “Victoire is certain that if they do, some ancient curse will be drawn down on their heads. Something about some organization, I think she called it Locks Lucas Alfredo….” 

A gasp from the other side of the table made Scorpius look up from his current slice of pizza; there was no evidence as to who had made the sound, but Rose’s eyes were wide and Cham was frowning deeply. Lily had a slightly troubled look on her face, but for the most part looked serene as she corrected Teddy.

“I believe the group of people you’re talking about is called Lux Lucis Effrego.” It means ‘Light Breakers’ in Latin.”

“They aren’t exactly known for their goodness of heart either,” Cham broke in.

“What exactly do you mean by that, Cham?” Mr. Potter asked. There was a slight edge to his voice, and the light hearted atmosphere seemed to have drifted off to grace another’s home. 

The two girls exchanged a significant looked that did not go unnoticed by the other occupants of the table. 

“Lily…,” and there was a note of warning to that one word. 

Just as Lily was opening her mouth to answer, Cham spoke up. “Let’s just say that our run ins with them have never been pleasant occasions. They have never done anything physical to us,“ she hurried to reassure him, and Scorpius swore he saw Lily mouth, ‘not yet, anyway,’ “-it has all just been verbal sparring.” Cham finished, while nudging Lily in the side.

Apparently Lily had said it just loud enough for her friend to hear her. 

“Don’t worry, Daddy,” Lily said, turning to him and smiling, “We haven’t got ourselves hurt in any way, shape, or form. Besides, it’s not like we don’t have an idea of what’s going to happen with them.”

“What do you mean by that?” Amanda spoke up for what seemed like the first time that evening. “You make it sound as if you’re psychic or something.”

“Or something,” someone muttered. Scorpius wasn’t sure who said it though, but Mrs. Potter was glaring in the general direction of Rose, so he had a good idea. 

There was an awkward silence after this that was saved by who Scorpius assumed was the least likely of people at the table.

“How’s your archery coming, Lily?” Albus asked from what seemed to be out of the blue. “Uncle George has set up a new course out at his house in Hogsmead. It’s really cool. You should check it out.”

The humor flared back to life in Lily’s green, green eyes, and Cham snorted from next to her. “Oh, I think her archery is getting better and better….,” she said. It was obvious to everyone that she was holding back some secret knowledge, and it amused her greatly.

“Really?” James asked. “After how many years at the sport, and your finally getting the hang of it, tell us Lils, what got you improving?”

“I’m not sure I should,” she said with an almost nervous glance at her cousin. 

“Oh! Come on Lils, it’s funny, if not just a tiny bit ironic.” Cham cajoled.

Everyone at the table, it seemed, were looking expectantly at Lily. She sighed and said with some slight exasperation, “Oh, alright! Mrs. Leastor, the outdoors instructor of our – um,” she paused slightly as if considering something and then continued, “-our school, noticed that I was having some trouble with focusing on the target, so she let me transfigure it into whatever shape I felt would help the most.”

“It’s a really cool process, though,” Cham cut in across her. “You don’t just say, ‘ok, I want this to be a bullseye target’ and then wave your wand and change it. You have to do it sub-consciously.”

There were several raised eyebrows around the table at this statement, and it was Scorpius that asked the obvious question. “How in Merlin’s name do you transfigure something sub-consciously?” 

Lily grinned at him, (he refused to acknowledge his heart speeding up), and when she answered it was as if she was only answering him and not addressing anyone else in the room. “It’s almost the same process as becoming an animagus,” she said. “You have to let go of quite literally everything you are thinking and feeling, putting yourself almost in a trance-like state.”

“You mean like that muggle exercise, what’s it called? Yoda or something like that,” Amanda said.

Lily nodded her head in acknowledgement, smiling slightly. “Yoga,” she corrected her. “Anyway, after you go into the ‘state of being and thinking’, as our instructors call it, you have to imagine your target and then cast your spell at the real target. If it’s done correctly, then when you come out of said ‘state of being and thinking’, you should have the target that will help you succeed the most in archery.”

“Hmm, that sounds like quite a process,” Mrs. Potter said. There was definite pride in her voice. “What did your target turn into, Lily?”

“Um…a flower.” Nothing truly significant or anything.”

Albus choked on the drink he just took, Rose paled greatly, and Cham stifled an all-out laugh.

“A flower,” James echoed her dryly, amusement clearly etched across his features.

“What type of flower, l’il Lily?” Teddy chimed in, grinning.

Now, Scorpius was not a stupid person, and given the past animosity between Rose and Lily, (mostly from Rose) he could figure out, just as he was absolutely certain everybody else at the table, except for maybe Amanda, what Lily’s archery target had turned into.

Lily looked as if she was going to pass out from the said animosity that was rolling off of Rose in waves. She looked very pale, and her face was scrunched up as if something she ate didn’t sit well in her stomach. It seemed as if Cham was the only other person that noticed though. But even she seemed to be insistent in teasing Lily.

Lily, however, was apparently one of those people who recovered fast from discomfort. He watched, amazed, as color flooded back into her face, and she steeled her nerves, giving an uncaring shrug, and pushed her blackish-red (‘is that even a color?’) hair behind her shoulder. She lifted her current slice of pineapple pizza to her mouth, and just before she bit into it, she stated very simply, “It turned into a rose.” 

“THAT”S SO MEAN!” Rose screamed as Teddy and James burst into raucous laughter.

“Meh, it happens,” Lily replied non-chalantly. “You think you might lower your voice a bit, I do actually like my hearing. I’m sure Scorpius does too, and he’s sitting right next to you,” she added as an aside. “Besides, I was trying to spare you the knowledge, since I didn’t really think you would appreciate it. But – ,” she trailed off, giving her brother and Teddy meaningful looks, and letting everyone else fill in the blanks. 

“That’s enough boys,” Mr. Potter said. Though he, himself seemed to be trying to stifle his own laughter.

Rose huffed and glowered down at her plate.

The conversation drifted on from there, moving onto plans for over the holiday and what everyone was doing. He wondered if he would get to see Lily again before the Weasley Family Christmas dinner. And then he wondered what his sudden obsession with her was. He had never cared before. It couldn’t be because he was rebounding from Rose. He wasn’t even upset over splitting with her. He stared sown at his plate, pondering this newest turn of his thoughts. Sure Lily was attractive, but was it really worth getting to know her better? If they ever did end up in a relationship together, what would it do to his friendship with Albus? Would it put a strain on it? It was common knowledge that Al and Lily did not get along, although, Scorpius had his suspicions that Al truly did care for his baby sister. And then there was James. He was pretty dang protective of her, and for someone who had found favor early on from the oldest of the Potter children, Scorpius really didn’t want to lose that.

On top of all of this, was the fact that she might be on bad terms with people he just might be unwillingly associated with, and he really didn’t want to put her in any danger. (Her dad was Harry Potter, after all.)

The blonde shook his head at his thoughts; he was getting way too far ahead of himself. All he wanted to do right now, was to simply get to know her, and then see where it went from there. 

He realized that he had moved his gaze from his plate and was staring straight ahead of him with a glazed look on his face. 

“You alright there, mate?” Teddy asked him quietly, breaking him from his thoughts.

“What? Oh, yeah. I’m good. Just thinking,” Scorpius smiled a little to let him know he was ok, and then looked around the table, coming face to face with those perfectly green eyes. They penetrated him, as if they could see into his deepest, most darkest, and scariest thoughts. 

They stared at each other for what seemed like hours to him, but was probably only a few seconds, before Cham said something, making Lily break her gaze first.

Then she made a tiny gasping sound and looked dead on at Teddy who was in a deep conversation with Mrs. Potter and Albus.

“Teddy?” She said in an unnaturally calm voice, putting a cease to said conversation. 

“Yes?”

“Do you remember earlier today at the Auror Office, you were telling me that you wanted to make a surprise trip to visit Victoire?”

Teddy looked slightly bewildered, as if trying to remember this particular discussion. Then understanding flooded his features and he grimaced slightly, and nodded. 

Lily never wavered from looking at Teddy, as if she were trying to impart something very important to him that she didn’t want anyone else to know. “Maybe you should make that visit soon,” she said.

“How soon is ‘soon’, do you think, Lils?” He asked her with a straight face, tilting his head slightly.

“Oh, I don’t know. How about tonight? As in, ‘I’m sorry Aunt Ginny, Uncle Harry, but I have an important meeting I need to get to right this very second; thanks for dinner; I love you much, gotta go’ – tonight,” she said all of this in a very hurried rush, and it was clear to everyone that she did not want to be having this discussion in front of them.

“Riiiiight….,” Teddy said getting up from his chair. “Well, Aunt Ginny, Uncle Harry. You heard the girl. I’ll see you later.” He left to stunned silence in the dining room and everyone staring at Lily Potter.

“Heh. I think I’m really tired Mum. May I be excused?” Lily looked at her mum pleadingly and as soon as she got a nod in return, she fled the table.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the other awesome things you may recognize in this spiffylicious story.


	3. A Trip Down Memory Lane and Rose

Chapter 3

Lily tossed and turned in her bed that night. She wanted nothing more than to just go to sleep. But, apparently her mind had other ideas. She couldn’t help but be upset over her dramatic exit earlier. She prided herself on remaining calm in any and all situations. 

Her cool and reserved, uncaring façade was her anchor to reality. She used it in any and all situations, clung to it, even. For her to lose it in front of other people was completely unsafe. Especially in front of her worst antagonist. Don’t get her wrong, she loved Rose dearly, even if she did have the urge to push her in front of one of those small muggle buses every now and then…. Ok, who was she kidding, any time she was around her cousin for longer than five minutes, she felt like that. 

She vaguely remembered a time when she did not feel that way towards Rose. Heck, it could have even been said that she actually looked up to her older cousin and wanted to be just like her. That was a long time ago though, and she rarely thought about it, as it brought along painful memories. It seemed to her that tonight her subconscious self was not going to listen to rationality, and she was taking a trip down memory lane whether she wanted to or not. 

She had been two years old when the healers told her parents there was a very large chance that Lily would never use her magic. Oh, she had it, they explained. She had it in droves; it was the largest manifestation of magic they had ever seen in one so young. But there was something blocking it and they could not figure out what. They did one test after another to try to unblock whatever ‘it’ was, but nothing worked. After one particular and very tiring test that left the little girl shaking, shivering, and paler than even the ghosts of Hogwarts, Ginny Potter had had enough. She told the healers in no uncertain terms that her daughter was not a lab rat for them to experiment on and if Lily’s magic was going to work, then they would leave it up to providence, and not force it.

(Lily was too young at the time to really remember any of this, but her parents had told her about it when she was eleven and they were considering not sending her to Hogwarts.)

Rose had always been the jealous sort of person, and she disliked Lily mostly for being born. It didn’t help Lily’s case that she was not able to use her magical powers. 

At the tender age of four Lily was sitting alone playing with her dolls in the family room of the Potter home in Godric’s Hollow when a six years old Rose and Albus came in. Never one to pass on the chance to make her cousin feel miserable, thus, the taunting began. 

Lily remembered that day with perfect clarity. She could honestly say that there was not much she could be grateful to Rose for, but she (read: Lily) gave full credit (if only with a little irony on the side) to the red headed girl for helping her awaken her powers. 

For obvious reasons, Rose’s cruelty upset Lily greatly. It also didn’t help matters that her brother was standing right there and not stepping in. As quiet tears streamed down from the little girls eyes and Rose continued on, Lily felt something spark inside of her belly. Much the same way you would think a spark of fire would feel when rubbing two flint rocks together. It was a hum of energy, if you will, that Lily had never before felt in her entire young life, and it scared her.

She wanted to run to her father or mother, and beg them to make it go away, but Rose and Albus were standing in the doorway. Lily remembered feeling the blood drain from her face and she thought Albus might have asked her if she was alright. But, that of course could not have been, because Rose was still going on and oN and ON, and Albus would not ever be worried for his little sister anyway.

As Rose continued on in her rant, and Lily’s anger grew, the spark turned into a tingly feeling that started to encompass her entire body. (And, although Lily didn’t realize it at the time, in hindsight, she realized that the feeling was growing along with her anger.) It festered deep within the core of her being, making Lily feel light headed and weak, but at the same time stronger than she had ever felt before. She was burning up with sweat and shivering with cold – the absolute worst feeling you could ever have. As the ‘fire’ moved up into her head, she started to ‘see’ things differently. There were strange colors surrounding Albus and Rose, and she could actually feel the animosity that came from Rose, along with the indifference from her brother.

Over the sound of Rose’s voice was a swirling vortex of thoughts that were not Lily’s own. It was too much stimulus for her young mind and she felt herself getting weaker as the hum of energy continued to take over her body.   
The climax came when her cousin, who finally realized Lily wasn’t paying any attention to her, called her a ‘freak’. 

Albus’s eyes went wide, that was one word that you never, ever, EVER, used in the Potter’s home. The strange fiery energy coursing through Lily’s body finally let go. The room started shaking, strange winds picked up, knocking things down from the tables and walls. The walls themselves were vibrating and the ceiling started crumbling inside itself. Al and Rose ducked under the nearest table, instinctually holding their heads in their trembling hands.

Maybe it was sheer luck, or maybe Lily might have had enough control over her accidental magic to protect them, or maybe it was their own magical abilities, none of them were really sure, but when the mayhem was over, the entire house in Godric’s Hollow was torn down to the ground around them. A sole table stood next to what used to be a solid wall, with two small children shaking uncontrollably underneath. In the middle of the demolished building lay a little girl shivering and trembling and barely conscious. 

Lily didn’t remember much after that. She caught small snatches of conversation, the gist of which was unknown to a small girl of four. In the days following that she learned what it felt like to actually have access to her magic. The small hum of fiery energy that she felt on that day was now a constant companion, and she was constantly hearing people’s thoughts and seeing colors everywhere. 

She could actually read people’s emotions, which scared her immensely. On top of all of this, she would catch glimpses of things that she was unsure about. People she had never met before in her life, and an older Rose and Albus. Some of this was totally inane, but there were other things, that she just could not wrap her young mind around.

Her parents, who were always the most level headed of people that she knew, seemed to be more stressed than usual. If she had been older, she would have understood that this was not only due to losing their home, but Lily’s unprecedented amount of magic. She should not have been able to blow up their home at such a young age.

Not knowing what else to do to help the young girl, her parents looked into different schools that specialized in the types of magic that Lily was showing. After all, it was one thing to be an empath, and another to be a seer, and even another to be able to see the auras of other people, but Harry and Ginny Potter had never heard of a witch or wizard that was able to do all three.

And then there was the mind reading. They knew she didn’t do it on purpose; the poor child had one massive headache after another from ‘hearing’ voices. At first, they thought that their precious daughter was losing her mind, or even worse, gaining a form of what the muggles called ‘schizophrenia’. 

However, that all changed one day when her father was home from work and in his study. He had been staring off into space when the then five year old Lily came in and climbed up into his lap.

She had a pout on her face, and before Harry could utter even a word, she said to him in a very serious voice, “Daddy, Albie just called me an idiot. But he didn’t actually ‘say’ it.”

Now normally, Harry would have brushed this off as his children simply arguing and tattling on each other, but her words struck a chord in him and he questioned her gently. ‘What do you mean by, ‘he didn’t actually say it’, Lily-Bean?”

Lily had a pensive look on her face as she considered how to explain to her father what she meant. She was only five after all. “I don’t know Daddy. I just know that Albie’s voice said ‘Lily’s such an idiot!’ But I was looking right at him when I heard it, and his lips didn’t move at all!”

That was when it hit Harry that his daughter was not ‘schizo’. (And, no, Albus was not a ventriloquist either.) So he and Ginny put in enquiries to magical schools all over the world in the hopes of finding something that might help their young daughter. And while they waited for answers, Harry taught Lily the very basics of Occlumency. 

It was a very frustrating process for them both, for Lily might have been a natural Ligilemens, but she was just like her father when it came to Occlumency. 

(It was just one more thing for her to add to her ‘just like daddy list’. There was quite a bit on that list too.) 

When Lily was seven years old her parents were told of a school called ‘Belle Aurora’. Her parents never told her where they heard about it from, but as she got older she had her suspicions that the only place they could have learned about this particular school from was the Department of Mysteries. 

It didn’t really matter where they heard about it, as she absolutely adored the place, and that was where she met Cham. She was simply curious.

‘Ah well,’ she thought, as she pulled herself out of her thoughts, ‘we did get to move into Potter Place after I blew up Godric’s Hollow.’ An impish grin flitted across her face before she resigned herself to the inevitable of not being able to sleep, she got out of bed deciding that it would probably be worth it to do some drawing. Her other drawing had been rudely interrupted by Scorpius Malfoy. She allowed herself a small dreamy sigh, and then focused back to the task at hand; finding her sketchbook.

She had been searching for a good fifteen minutes before a light bulb went off in her head and she remembered that she had left it in the small parlour. Not realizing how late it actually was, she groaned to herself, and made her way downstairs and to what she thought of as an inevitable confrontation.

The dark haired girl made her way through the halls of her home knowing that the pictures of her ancestors hanging on the walls were only pretending to be asleep. Lily had always found it a bit creepy having sentient pictures hanging on the walls. Of course, she overlooked the fact that two of her three favorite rooms were also somewhat of a sentient nature. She took comfort in the fact that at least these pictures were of her ancestors and family members. It was worse at Hogwarts, and she didn’t even want to think about her other school. Belle Aurora took their pictures to a whole new level of different. Even for the wizarding world. 

There were a few muggle pictures of course. Her ‘Uncle’ Dudley had sent her father pictures he had found when cleaning out his mother’s attic, and he always kept the Potters updated with photos of his family. 

She stopped to admire the most recent of the Dursley family portraits. In the back and sitting the tallest was Dudley Dursley. He had blonde hair and blue eyes that twinkled merrily from the picture. His wife, Miralda sat slightly to the right and in front of him. Miralda was the polar opposite of Dudley in looks. She had almond colored skin and the prettiest amber eyes Lily had ever seen and her hair was as black as a moonless night in the forest. Their oldest son, (though only by two minutes and thirty –nine seconds) Braydon, sat next to his mother, while his twin brother Brandon and their younger sister, (by two years and three months) Bridget, were casually draped across the floor.

Next to the Dursley family portrait was a picture of her great-aunt Petunia. She had salt and pepper hair that was pulled back in a chignon, and a stern expression on her face. Lily was unsure how her father had come into possession of it, but she spared it little thought. The only real use she had for her great-aunt was interrogation. Which she did as often as she could. She knew it drove the ‘horse lady’ crazy too. But, Lily really couldn’t help herself. She had an insatiable curiosity when it came to some things. (Her family history being one of them.) 

Her father and ‘Uncle’ Dudley made sure that any questions that Lily may have, Petunia would answer.

A creak of a door made Lily look away from the pictures. The back door was the only door in Potter Place that made a noise like that. Sticking to the shadows, she crept stealthily along the hallway to the kitchen. There was an intense feeling in her to not be seen, making her wish briefly for Cham who was a master at blending in. But if the clock on the wall was to be believed, then it was 2:30 in the morning, (much later than she thought it was), and Cham was probably in bed, dreaming of Albus. The last part of that thought made Lily shudder. (It wasn’t that she was against the idea of Cham and Albus being in a relationship, it was just weird to think of them that way.)

Not wanting to get sidetracked by her thoughts, Lily pushed them away and snuck around the corner of the dining room. She groaned quietly in frustration when she saw the kitchen door was closed. But she refused to let this beat her. She was set on finding out just whom or what had gone out the back door. Of course, it could have been nothing more than Scorpius Malfoy going home her conscious whispered. Lily ignored the voice however and continued on. 

She whispered an ’animadverto per’ charm at the door. Once she made sure nobody was there, she slipped silently through, making sure the door didn’t make any noise while swinging shut behind her.

The light of the moon shining through the three large windows and the double French doors illuminated the room with an eerie glow. Lily was able to see the silhouette of four people through the doors. 

Three of them wore dark colored cloaks that shimmered in the moonlight, they all had their hoods up obscuring the color of their hair, and their backs were to the door, so she could not make out their faces. She would recognize the ‘Effrego’ anywhere though. The fourth person stood in the middle of the group, and though she was standing with her back straight and her head held high, Lily noted that there was some wariness about the girl. 

And then it clicked in her head that the girl she was observing was none other than Rose Weasley!

‘Just what in Merlin’s name was her STUPID cousin doing with them!? Why was she even still here? Shouldn’t she have gone back home? Stupid Rose, and her stupid ways of causing trouble!’ (She completely ignored the irony in being ok with Malfoy still being there, and not ok with Rose.) 

Lily moved to the kitchen window closest to where the people outside were standing, and examined it in the hopes of opening it to hear them. She glanced around the kitchen, though what she was looking for was anyone’s guess, her eyes landing on the large refrigerator. Dangling from the top of it was what appeared to be a long almost invisible string. She was absolutely certain that she would have missed it, had it not been for the moonlight and the glint that was shining off the string.

It was her Uncle George’s newest ‘Extendable Ear’ prototype. Teddy had been playing with one when she had gone to visit him earlier that day. The ‘extendable’ part of the ear was made with spider wire, a very thin string made from the silky threads of spiders. A charm was placed on it to allow sound to travel back to a small pearlesque bead. Lily was pretty sure that this particular type of ‘Extendable Ear’ was only being made for and marketed to the Auror department.

She quickly grabbed it and went back to the window. She cracked the window open just enough to feel the cool air on her bare arms, and let the ‘ear’ go. She whispered a silencing spell on the cord just in case it made any noise while making its way to the group of people, and then listened.

“…you cannot be serious in this, Weasley!” A male’s voice whispered furiously. “You can’t! You can’t say you’re going to join us and then back out at the last minute! They’ll have your head for it!”

“It’s not like…” Rose’s voice was cut off by another. 

It was a female, and her voice was silky smooth and it made Lily tremble with trepidation. She had a very bad feeling she knew exactly who it was, and if she was correct, and she was rarely wrong, then Rose was in a lot more trouble then she probably realized. 

‘Stupid Rose!’

“No, Rose isn’t going to leave us in this bind. Are you Rosie?” The woman asked softly and coldly malicious. Rose visibly flinched, and Lily could just visualize the preening on the mysterious woman’s face. The woman reached up and drew her finger down Rose’s cheek. “You will bring us the jewel-“

“But, I don’t even know – “

The woman continued on as if Rose had never interrupted, “ – along with the heart, or else there will be consequences to be paid.”

For all that Lily disliked her cousin; she did not enjoy watching her get beat into submission by the stinking ‘Lux Lucis Effrego’. Somebody really needed to put them in their place and Lily was afraid that it was going to have to be herself. Especially since she had a sinking suspicion what the heart and jewel that they spoke of was. 

She didn’t think Rose knew what they were though, and she hoped and prayed that Rose would not figure it out. Lily gripped the light weight chain that hung around her neck briefly; it was a nervous habit that anyone in her family or those of her close friends would have recognized. 

The dark haired girl was about to pull the ‘ear’ back, thinking that they might be done with their little têtê –a–têtê, only to hear the third voice speak. His was a voice that Lily would recognize anywhere. At one point in time she could have sworn, hell, she would have sworn, that he was ‘the one’ for her. Screw everything she had already seen about her future, she would have changed it all for him. But he had not been as serious about her as she was about him. Which, of course, really should not have surprised her in the least; they all eventually found their way to Rose. (Lily had the drawings to prove it too.) Still, it hurt. It hurt like a mad crazy bus let loose in muggle traffic with no magic to maneuver around said muggles.

Lily could hear the smirk in his voice when he said in a sweetly and seductively to her cousin, “as long as you don’t fail us Rosie, I will personally make it worth your while. Not that I haven’t already.”

She heard Rose sigh wistfully and her answer with whispered ‘alright’. Lily felt the need to stab someone, or two someones for that matter, with a very dull knife. ‘Good Greece,’ she thought, in an almost despairing manner, ‘I’m becoming almost as violent as Cham!’ The distinct sound of apperation brought her out of her musings quickly and the littlest Potter hurried to pull the ‘ear’ back in. She closed the window as fast as she could without making any noise, and made her way back to the swinging kitchen door just as Rose walked through the French doors.

“What are you doing down here!?” The red headed girl screeched, barely containing her voice as not to wake her aunt and uncle.

Lily wheeled around and looked at her cousin as if she were crazy. (Which for all intents and purposes to Lily’s mind, Rose was. But that was beside the point.) “What are you up to?” She asked mischievously, instead of answering. She grinned wickedly when Rose grimaced visibly.

“That’s none of your concern, Lily! Whatever you saw or think you saw, was nothing. I was just meeting up with some friends. That’s all.” She said decisively.

Lily shrugged her shoulders in response. “Uh huh, whatever Cousin.” She shrugged non-chalantly. “Honestly, Rose? I don’t really care what you’re up to. Although, I think you should think about this, I never said I saw you with anyone. But your guilty conscious sure is telling me a lot.” She smiled sweetly at Rose, making sure that it reached her eyes, if for nothing more than to throw Rose off, and left the room. Rose paled in comparison and just stood there lost in the hopes that Lily really didn’t see, or worse, hear anything.

Lily made her way back to her room, only realizing that she still didn’t have her sketchbook when she threw herself onto her bed. ‘Oh well, screw it,’ she thought dismissively.

Figuring that her mind may finally let her go to sleep, she snuggled into her pillows. It was not to be however, as she kept hearing ‘his’ voice whispering in that seductive voice over and over again to Rose. 

She begged her mind to shut down. She thought of Scorpius and how she might actually, finally start to talk to him. She thought of Cham and her over – protective ways, and her weird crush on Al. Lily figured that she should probably be slightly weirded out by that. After all, Cham was her best friend. Then again, wasn’t she in a slightly similar boat with Scorpius? She shrugged her shoulders at that thought, and then laughed a little at herself. 

One second she’s thinking of an imbecilic jerk and his wild ‘fling’ with her cousin and the next she’s got her mind focused on her cousin’s ex? Lily was coming to the fast conclusion that there was something seriously wrong with her. 

What happened to coming home only to take care of the ‘obnoxious drama Rose was going to be causing’? She asked herself. That was what she had told Cham she was going to do over her Christmas holiday. Cham had been reluctant at first to come along with her, but then Lily reminded her that Albus would be here, and she jumped on board without thinking twice. 

Now, however, Lily was thinking twice about coming home, and she blamed Rose completely. Lily absolutely despised having to deal with her own emotions. They had a tendency to make things crazy. 

The dark haired girl groaned and decided that maybe she should check out her Uncle George’s new archery course. After all, there was nothing like shooting at rose shaped targets to make one’s self-feel better.

She smiled with glee at the thought, and had anyone actually been looking, they might have wondered at the pain that shone from her green eyes ever so briefly.


	4. Explosions and Toast?

Chapter 4

The air was crisp and fresh and cold. Just the way she liked it. It was perfect for thinking. 

She knocked her arrow and took aim for the target, pushing all thoughts and emotions from her mind. She took in a breath, slowly exhaled, thought her fire spell to life, and let the arrow loose.

It shot clean and clear, fire blazing at the end of it, and hit the pile of faux bricks and powder dead on. The resounding *KA-BOOM!* was music to her ears.

“YES!!” she screamed, doing a victory dance. “I still got it, I still got it! UH-HUH! I still got it!” She sang, twirling around and grabbing Cham around the neck, in a one armed hug.

Cham laughed at Lily’s antics. “By the way that you’re acting,” the blonde stated through her giggles, a person might think that it’s been years since you last shot an arrow, instead of only a few weeks.”

Lily let go of her in mock affront and stuck her tongue out. “It’s all in the details, Chammy - all in the details,” she stated. 

~SLSLSL~  
Lily had woken up that morning with a jolt. She did not remember falling asleep, but a glance at the clock on her wall told her that she had probably only slept for about two hours. It was unlikely, however, that she would get back to sleep. So, she got up and got dressed and went down to her parlour; only to find Scorpius Malfoy asleep on the couch. She found herself to be slightly exasperated with his presence there. Just what in the heck was he doing here? Didn’t he have his own place now? She thought her mother had mentioned something about Al and he getting a flat together. It was supposedly closer to their jobs.

She supposed she could understand Scorpius not wanting to go home and being confronted by Albus over the whole ‘Rose issue’. But, good Greece, didn’t Scorpius practically have one of the guest rooms in Potter Place as his own? “Stupid Malfoy. Stupid room deciding to like stupid Malfoy,” she grumbled quietly. She felt the room’s sentient nature rise up in a bout of indignation and anger, and Lily giggled a little when she felt the tumultuous emotions turn into confusion. 

This room had always belonged to Lily; ever since the Potters had moved here. The first time she wandered in, the room’s sentient nature took to the small girl, the same way a kitten will claim its true master. It was strangely protective of her as well. Any person that insulted her in there would likely be harmed in some strange way.

Lily remembered the first time Rose had ever insulted her in the small parlour. The air in the room swelled up into a hot and suffocating, stuffy mass, circling around the red head. It didn’t even touch Lily, who had been standing in the middle of the room. The dark haired girl recalled that anywhere she moved in the room, it was as if she had a clear-air bubble wrapped around her head. 

Rose had ended up stumbling out of the room gasping for air. Lily was absolutely certain that Rose would not have died, but it had definitely been fun to watch her cousin suffer for her meanness for once. And then there was the time Albus had called Lily ‘stupid’ while standing just inside the threshold. The room had not taken too well to that, and the floorboard that Al had been standing on just happened to ‘roll’. It pushed Al out the door while causing him to trip over his own feet. Lily had laughed so hard, she felt like her lungs would burst from her chest.

Scorpius, however, seemed to be the exception to the rule. Although it might have been due to the fact that he really didn’t know Lily, so he never said anything bad about her. Or maybe it was the fact that room picked up on Lily’s thoughts and emotions towards said blonde haired boy. Whatever the case, the room never seemed to cause him any pain. As far as Lily knew, Scorpius didn’t even know of the sentient nature of the room. 

She grinned briefly at the room in general, and felt the air in it becoming very chilly indeed. “Are you trying to freeze me out?” She asked quietly while holding in a snicker. The irony of being scolded by this room was not lost on her and it amused her greatly. 

She was about to leave completely, (she didn’t feel the need to argue with the stinking room this early in the morning,) when she noticed that Scorpius was shivering. ‘Once I leave, the room will warm up and he’ll be fine’, she thought to herself. Apparently the parlour had other ideas though. A large blue thermal blanket appeared out of nowhere onto the two person chair, across from where Scorpius lay asleep on the couch. (For the record, Lily had no idea that her favorite room could conjure things like the Room of Requirement in Hogwarts could.)

‘Well, this is new,’ she thought, and huffed in irritation. If the room had a face, surely its façade would be full of smug interest. ‘Really!? Really? That’s it! I’m getting a cat, and then I’ll let it use your walls as a scratching post!!’ She thought angrily at it. She knew the room could hear her thoughts too, because she felt the flinch from it when she yelled the threat in her mind. 

As irritated as she was, she would not let Scorpius suffer because her room was acting like a child. She grumbled to herself about obnoxious sentient rooms, as she made her way over to the two person chair for the blanket and then the boy on the couch.

She decided, if only in her thoughts, that Scorpius Malfoy was adorable in his sleep. He was snuggled into one of the over large, fluffy couch pillows, one of his hands was thrown over his eyes, a pair of reading glasses, (‘He wears reading glasses? How cu – ute is that?’) sitting askew on his face under said hand; the other clutched a book loosely that he had obviously been reading.

She gently and carefully, as not to wake him, removed his glasses from his face and set them on the table next to the couch and then grabbed the book and also moved it to the table. She covered him quickly with the blanket and turned to leave the traitorous room. Had she stayed even a moment longer, she would have heard him whisper her name quietly.

As she made her way speedily from her (suddenly) not-so-favorite parlour, she quite literally ran into Cham, and fell non-to-gently on her behind. Lily laughed nervously while Cham helped her to her feet.

“What are you doing, Lils?” Her best friend asked with a little mirth in her voice. “I heard you get up and figured you would probably be drawing or something, and here you are running away from your parlour as if the hounds of Hades are after you.” 

“Nothing. It’s nothing,” Lily replied somewhat shakily. She didn’t need her friend to know that Scorpius was in there asleep right now. She would never hear the end of the teasing, or the quips. And it didn’t matter how often Lily might turn the tables on Cham with quips back at her about Albus. Cham would always return with something about how at least their feelings for each other were somewhat acknowledged. Lily would of course, snort at this, but it never seemed to phase Cham in the same way it did Lily.

“Why are you up so early anyway?” Cham asked, bringing Lily out of her thoughts. She was studying the dark haired girl intensely. It was normal for Lily to be up early, but never this early. Plus, Cham knew for a fact that Lily had not got that much sleep the night before. She had listened to her friend toss and turn most of the night. She had even been tempted to follow her when Lily had got up for those few minutes earlier that night. She had drifted off to sleep before the thought ever fully formed into a command to her body. When she heard Lily get up again, and then proceed to get dressed, Cham decided that it was time to follow her friend.

Lily looked self-conscious for a brief moment. It was not a look Cham was used to seeing on her friend, but it was gone so quick that she dismissed it as a fluke and was drawn back by Lily’s next words. “I think I’m going to go check out Uncle George’s new archery course. You in?”

Cham shuddered at the mere thought of going out there in the cold and snow. But she knew that Lily would go with or without her. “I just want you to know that I think you are totally crazy, Lils,” she stated. “But yeah,” she continued with a sigh, “I’ll go with you.”

Lily grinned brilliantly.

~SLSLSL~

The two girls had been at the archery course for an hour before Lily finally got her target conjured. She was having a really hard time making the transfiguration. Every time she started to get her mind cleared, some stray thought would wander into it. She would have gladly blamed Cham, except the other girl was (supposedly) dozing over by a tree in a cloud of conjured warmth. No, Lily knew it was her own mind that was being uncontrollable. Overcoming her frustration with the situation had taken her a good forty-five minutes, and then it took another fifteen minutes to finally get the target made.

But, it had been totally worth it. The 17 year old girl figured it was one of her best targets yet, and when she let her arrow loose, not only did it fly straight and true, it hit its mark dead center. ‘You just can’t have much better luck with that,’ she thought.

Cham pulled herself out of her doze with just enough time to watch Lily’s arrow fly. She had been watching her friend practice archery for a long time and she could honestly say that this was the first time she had ever seen Lily hit the target with such precision. 

She shot the younger girl an amused look as she danced around the clearing, and went to take a look at the target.

‘I gotta hand it to the girl,’ the blonde thought somewhat ruefully, ‘when she wants to make a point, she really packs a punch.’ Lily’s target was that of a rose, just like they always were, but this time, as Cham studied it, she was able to make out facial features concealed in the midst of the center petals, while the outer petals made out the riotous waves that could only be hair. As she continued to stare at it, her eyes focusing and un-focusing, she realized it was Rose Weasley’s face that she was looking at. She had to wonder if Lily had done it on purpose. Cham brushed that idea aside though, since she knew the process was done completely sub-consciously.

It gave new meaning to why Lily had hit her mark so straight though. Cham giggled a little ironically at the whole situation.

Lily made her way over to her friend and also studied the target. “Oh, wow,” she breathed. “I mean… I didn’t realize…I didn’t know I actually made her face,” she continued in a subdued voice and unconsciously answering Cham’s previous thoughts. Lily crossed her arms over her chest in a protective gesture that Cham recognized immediately. “I saw her,” she continued, “in my head, I saw her. But, I tried to push her out and just focus on the target. Nothing else. I swear it, Cham. I didn’t mean for it to come out this way.”

There it was again, that vulnerability that Lily hid so well. It hardly ever surfaced, but Cham knew it was always just under the surface of Lily’s cool façade. 

“It’s fine Lily. It’s not a big deal. It’s just the two of us out here right now anyway, and we can just change it up. We won’t even have to do it subconsciously. Heck, I’ll even do it for you!” The blonde said, trying to calm her friend. 

Before Cham even got her wand out, they heard a voice call out to them in greeting. The two girls turned to see Albus and Scorpius walking towards them from the direction of George’s house. 

“So much for it just being the two of us out here,” Lily muttered under her breath. Cham glowered at her briefly and turned to the fast approaching boys. 

“What are you guys doing out here?” She asked them sweetly. 

Albus grinned at them nervously, while Scorpius looked around the clearing, taking in the different targets and generally avoiding eye contact with the two girls. When his eyes caught sight of Lily’s rose target, he studied it intently causing Lily to blush lightly.

“We were helping Uncle George with some stuff for the shop over in Diagon Alley,” Albus answered. “He mentioned that you guys were here and sent us out to get you for breakfast. Aunt Angie says that you have to eat because ‘if your mother found out I didn’t feed you, she’d have my head!’ Her words, not mine,” he finished putting his hands up in a placating manner.

Cham’s stomach grumbled loudly just then, and she looked away slightly embarrassed, while Lily giggled.

“Breakfast it is,” the dark haired girl stated with amusement dancing in her eyes. She grabbed her bow and the quiver full of arrows and led the way to the house.

~SLSLSL~

Lily loved all of her aunts and uncles the same. Truly, she did. Put simply though, she liked her Uncle Charlie the most. But when he wasn’t around, which was hardly ever, Uncle George and Aunt Angelina came in close seconds. It also helped that Uncle George always had some sort of new exploding invention lying around the house. Plus Aunt Angie’s breakfasts were phenomenal. There were few things that Lily loved more than a good breakfast and an explosion first thing in the morning.

It seemed to Lily, as they walked through the door of the cozy three bedroom cottage, which her aunt really had only asked them to breakfast due to not wanting Ginny’s wrath to fall upon her shoulders. 

The house was a disaster. There were boxes everywhere, filled with all sorts of different trinkets and gadgets and odd sorts of paraphernalia piling over the sides. 

Angelina was like a mad woman running around trying to get everything packed up and stored against the wall. She dropped everything she was doing when she saw her niece and nephew and their friends walk through the door. 

“We’re here!” Albus announced to the room in general.

The two boys, she had seen earlier that day, but the girls she had not seen since the year before. Lily’s face was flushed from cold and laughter, and little wisps of hair that had fallen out of her hat were flying wildly around her face. Angelina also took note that Malfoy could not seem to keep his eyes off the littlest Potter, and she grinned inwardly to herself at this slight turn of events.

The other girl, Angelina knew, was Lily’s best friend. She was tall and blonde, and carried an edge of attitude in the way that she walked. Angelina adored her in an instant.

“Honey,” George said, coming out of the back room. He was rather frazzled and didn’t seem to notice the extra people standing just inside the door. “Do you know when the boys are getting back? We don’t have a lot of time. We need to get this inventory to the shop!”

“They’re right –“

“Does that mean no breakfast?” Cham asked, cutting across Angie.

“Well, I…”

“CHAM!! You’re so rude!” Albus yelled with a little indignation, and Scorpius and Lily looked on with some amusement.

“I guess I could m…”

“Lily! Is that you? I hardly recognized!” George said, once again cutting across Angelina and bounding over to hug his niece.

“TOAST!” Angelina exclaimed. “And coffee,” she added almost as an afterthought. “That is what we are going to have for breakfast.”

At everyone’s questioning looks, she sighed in exasperation and left the room. 

“I think I’ll go help her,” Lily said after extricating herself from her uncle’s bone-crushing hug.

George laughed lightly and patted her back. “Yes, you go do that. She’s probably in there fuming over being interrupted so many times. You would think, after being part of this family for so long, she would be used to it by now.” 

As Lily made her way to help her aunt in the kitchen with Cham following behind, George turned to the two boys and said, “Well, back to work boys. You had your break.” He smiled merrily as he himself went back to packing up the boxes and laughed again when he heard the grumbling of the two men behind him.


	5. Two and a half hours later.... Give or Take

Scorpius dropped the last box of ‘Whistling Whispers’ on the floor in the inventory room of Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes. 

When George Weasley had told Albus and Scorpius a couple days ago that he had new items for the market, Scorpius had no idea that it was an entire muggle truck load. He was glad that Lily and Cham had just happened to be out at George’s house. They had made the moving a whole lot quicker, (and more enjoyable too.) 

Making his way to the front of the store, he found Albus and Fred in what looked to be a rather heated conversation. He caught Cham’s eye for a brief moment and she winked conspiratorially at him and grinned before turning back to the display that George had convinced her to make.

“Done in the back, are you, Scor?” George asked as he bustled his way past the blonde. He didn’t give Scorpius a chance to respond and continued on, “good, good. You can go help Lily then.” He pointed vaguely in the direction of the cash register as he moved away.

Lily was standing on a ladder behind the counter, reaching up to one of the higher shelves for a bottle that seemed to be jumping away from her hand any time it came near to the bottle.

Her shirt was riding up just enough to show a tiny bit of the milky white skin underneath, making his breath hitch in his throat.

‘Bloody hormones!’ He cursed in his mind

He moved over to the cash register and positioned himself so that he was leaning against the counter watching her. Yes, he probably should have jumped right into helping her like George had said, but he was having too much fun watching her struggle with the shelf.

And then, a strange thought crossed his mind. ‘Wasn’t Lily a witch? Couldn’t she just summon the bottle?’

With these questions dancing around in his mind, he moved forward to the ladder. It was of some surprise to him that he stood right below her ear, and a sly look crossed over his face as he murmured, “you know, it might stop hopping around if you just summoned it.” 

Lily, startled from the sudden voice, and even more startled at the fact she didn’t even realize Scorpius, of all people, was behind her, jumped about a foot in the air, (some exaggeration is of course, implied in this estimation), knocking her head into the bottom of the shelf that she was reaching to, and letting out a small screech. 

She spun around so fast that she lost her footing and stumbled off the (somewhat stable) ladder, catching a glimpse of pretty blue-grey eyes before flailing her arms for balance and finally losing her footing altogether. She just knew that she was going to land flat on her face in front of the one person she had, for her entire life, (or at least since she was six years old), tried to avoid making a fool of herself in front of.

She was not expecting for him catch her. She landed face first in his arms, staring at the floor, and as far as she was concerned, she had just lost whatever dignity she had had.

“You can put me down now,” she mumbled just loud enough for him to hear. She knew that her face was red all the way to the tips of her ears. ‘Of all the traits I had to have in common with Uncle Ron….’ Lily absolutely refused to look at Scorpius’s face and the smirk she just knew was going to be there. She didn’t feel like slapping it off of him. Nor did she feel the need to acknowledge the feeling of safety she had in this particular position.

Scorpius didn’t even blink when she started to fall, just jumped forward and grabbed her up in his arms. His keeper skills, that he still practiced with to this day, coming into play. He was feeling just a tad bit guilty for scaring her so badly, even if he was enjoying their current position. He held her for a moment longer after she told him to put her down, and it was only when she started struggling with him that he came out of the slight stupor he was in.

He gently lowered her to the floor and then put his hands on her shoulders and studied her closely. “Are you sure you’re alright?’ He asked somewhat sheepishly.

Her eyes had drifted away to look at something behind him and Scorpius turned slightly to see Cham standing next to the counter, amusement dancing in her eyes. ‘When did she come over here?’ Choosing to ignore the tall girl, he turned back to focus on Lily.

Lily grunted at him and pushed him away slightly. “I’m fine, Scorpius,” she practically hissed.

Scorpius ran a hand through his hair nervously. “Right. Sorry. Um, so yeah, George told me to come help you over here….” He trailed off at Lily’s look of incredulity and Cham’s not-so-subtle giggle.

“I don’t think scaring the living wits out of me so I can fall off a ladder is helping very well,” the dark haired girl stated dryly.

He sighed in irritation, whether it was at himself or her for her sharp tongue was anyone’s guess. “Look, I said I was sorry, didn’t I?”

Lily looked away from him and muttered something that caused the other girl to laugh outright and Scorpius knew that it could not have been very flattering to his character.

“WHAT did you just say?” He demanded of her. 

Lily looked up at him with pure innocence shinning from her eyes. This had to be the most exasperating girl he had ever met in his entire existence. It was no wonder she had her father, Teddy, and James wrapped around her little finger. How Albus had managed to stay immune to her after all these years was beyond Scorpius’s comprehension.

Groaning in frustration, Scorpius dragged his hand through his hair. “Never mind, let’s just get this done so we can…”

The door to the shop opening behind him had Lily’s bright green eyes widening, and his sentence being cut short.

“Well, well, well. What do we have here?” The voice was a smooth baritone, one that Scorpius had hoped to never hear in his life again. The Malfoy scion turned away from Lily slowly, consciously keeping her behind him. He had not liked the look of utter disgust and loathing, and that something else that had quickly crossed her face before she hid it away. He would examine his protectiveness towards the girl later.

Right now all he wanted to do was get this *person* out of here. As he turned fully around he noticed in his peripheral vision that Cham was moving to stand next to Lily, as if to shield her as well.

Thomas McLaggen stood there looking at the trio with what Scorpius thought was supposed to be a grin on his face. He was a couple inches shorter than Scorpius and his hair was of a light brownish shade. He had gray eyes like Scorpius, but his were darker, with flecks of brown within them. He was dressed well in a pair of tan trousers, and a black pea coat with a black and white striped scarf wrapped around his neck. He was flanked by two of his friends that Scorpius only slightly recognized.

Scorpius and Thomas had always been rivals, just as much as Harry and Draco had been rivals in their school days. The difference being that McLaggen wasn’t being misled by anyone, nor was he trying to gain anybody’s love. He was simply a jerk – of the worst kind.

“You move fast, huh Malfoy? Didn’t you just break up with the Weasley tramp?”

Scorpius bristled slightly at hearing his longtime friend being called such a name. Even if he did somewhat agree with the assessment of her character, Rose had been one of his first true friends and it felt wrong to not defend her; which he didn’t.

He could feel Lily’s and Cham’s eyes on him when he remained silent.

Thomas’s grin took on a slight edge as he continued, “Not that I blame you though. Rose is a good piece to get into, but it’s the innocent ones that are all the sweeter.” The two goons behind Thomas laughed maliciously and Scorpius could literally feel Lily tense behind him.

He heard a disgruntled intake of breath from Cham, but before either of them could say anything at all, they were interrupted by a dangerously soft voice.

“What did you just say about my sister?” Albus appeared from seemingly nowhere with his wand at the ready and pointing directly at Thomas’s chest. His green eyes were spitting fire and Scorpius could honestly say that he had never seen his best friend angry over a slight towards the youngest Potter.

Then again, few people talked about her around Albus. It was almost as if she were a taboo subject.

“Technically,” Cham piped up, “it was Rose that he insulted.” 

Six sets of eyes turned to look at the blonde girl incredulously. Well, it was probably five. Lily was too busy gawking at her brother. From the looks of it, she was more than a little surprised at Albus’s sudden concern.

Scorpius turned back to Cham who shrugged her shoulders delicately. “What?” She asked, “It’s true and you guys know it.”

“Seriously Cham. Don’t help.” Lily muttered to her friend. There was an ironic edge to her voice that made Scorpius wonder if these two girls took anything seriously. He could feel his lip twitching up into a slight grin as he watched how the two girls seemed to diffuse the situation in a matter of seconds.

Stepping around Scorpius and up to her brother, Lily stopped just in front of Albus. She pushed his wand arm down and stood there studying him for what seemed like ages. Albus, for his part, stared right back at her and there was a strange calmness that fell over the room.

“Huh,” was the barely audible word that escaped her lips. That was all she said before she turned away from him with a somewhat happier glint in her eye.

Scorpius had no idea what had just passed between the two Potter siblings, but whatever it was, it was of definite significance.

“I want to go get my Christmas shopping done, Cham.” Lily said abruptly. She walked briskly back over to her best friend and grabbed her wrist, pulling her away from where she stood near Scorpius. Then turning to address Fred, whom Scorpius had not realized had joined the group, she said, “Will you tell Uncle George that our work here is done? I’m sure you guys can handle it. Besides all that’s really left is that shelf right there that needs rearranging.” She pointed at the shelf that she had been working on before Scorpius had scared her quite literally off the ladder. “It shouldn’t be that hard, Scorpius said that he can just summon it into place.” She grinned impishly up at her cousin, while Scorpius spluttered.

“I…what…wait a minute…..”

The blonde boy watched as Lily summarily dismissed the troublemakers by ignoring them completely and walked out the front door with her best friend being dragged along.

“She certainly has a way to get things done her way,” Fred said with a grin. “Though, I have to say, Lily never was one much for confrontation. She always left that up to you guys, didn’t she?” He had that same impish look on his face that Lily had before she left the shop. Then he shrugged ever-so-casually and told the two boys still standing there to get back to work.

“Oh, and you guys?” The red haired Weasley said, turning to Thomas and his goons. “You should probably get out of here before my father realizes you’re here, beings that we’re closed and all that. I wouldn’t want him to think that you’re trying to steal something. He might decide to make you his next beta testers.” The look on Fred’s face was almost feral with glee as he thought of the three men standing in front of him being used as test subjects by his father. After all, nobody was allowed to talk about his favorite cousin that way. Rose was one thing, but Lily was a completely different story.

“This isn’t over Malfoy!” Thomas snarled as he stormed out of the shop with the two others following behind.

“What did you do to him?” Fred wanted to know.

Scorpius was just as much at a loss as the others. He shrugged at the Weasley boy and then sighed while turning back to the shelf that Lily had left for him to rearrange. He let out a reluctant chuckle and looked at the shelf. The blonde haired man had to give her credit, she was a clever one. ‘What was that book? It was about some kid who got others to do his work without them even realizing it?’ He knew it was a muggle book, and it was considered a classic among them as well. He had seen it a number of times in the Potter’s library. Teddy had even mentioned once in passing that it was one of Lily’s favorites. Scorpius pondered this for a few minutes before giving it up as a loss and turned to his work.

About fifteen minutes later, he was putting the finishing touches on the shelf above the register when Fred and Albus joined him.

“Dad says we can go as soon as you’re finished there, Scorpius,” Fred informed him. “He even gave me all of our checks. …He said something about us getting out of his hair and getting our own Christmas shopping done. He doesn’t want to hear us complaining last minute.” The Weasley twinkle was in his eye as he grinned at his two friends, making Scorpius laugh and Albus groan.

“I hate shopping,” the black haired boy muttered.

“I’m done here, let’s get out of here then,” Scorpius said. “Where to?”

The boys grabbed their jackets and Fred yelled out to his father that they were leaving. The air was fresh and cold with a tiny bite to it as they walked out the door. 

“I’m pretty hungry,” Albus said. “What? I am!” He exclaimed when they gave him an incredulous look. “I’m not just saying that because I don’t want to go shopping. Which, by the way, I don’t,” he added as an afterthought. “But that’s not the point. It’s been hours since we had breakfast.” As if to emphasize his point, his stomach grumbled loudly just then.

The other two laughed at him and Fred said, “Jeez Albus, you would think you were starved listening to the way your stomach makes noises.”

Albus merely shrugged. He was used to being teased for being hungry all the time. There was a reason he was called the bottomless pit in the Potter family.

“The ‘Leaky Cauldron’ it is then,” Scorpius said. Albus did have a point, it was one in the afternoon and they had not eaten anything since early that morning. 

The three men made their way down the street and into the local pub and doorway between the muggle and wizarding England. A warm atmosphere greeted them when they entered. The large fire on the far wall was roaring warmly and people were laughing loudly. There were even a few children running around the room. 

Behind the counter stood a pale skinned girl talking to a patron and from the looks of it, she was taking an order. She had dark eyes that had a happy glow to them and brown hair that, although the boys knew it to be waist-length, was tied up in a messy bun with a pen sticking through it. A set of dainty glasses sat on her nose that she pushed up every few minutes. When she saw who had walked through the door she immediately grinned, said something to the patron, and greeted the boys with a slightly sardonic, “Welcome to the ‘Leaky Cauldron.’” 

The boys sat down in one of the empty booths and Alice brought them all coffee cups with piping hot steam coming off the top.

“What can I get for you guys today?” She asked in a slightly–too-perky voice.

“Hey Alice,” Fred said. “Working hard today?” 

“Not really,” she replied with a dainty shrug. “It’s been steady, but not really busy. Lily and Cham came in a little while ago.”

Albus’s head popped up at that. “They did?” He questioned. 

Alice studied him for a moment, the replied, “Yes. They’re still here too. Somewhere. I’m not sure where though. Why?” She asked him, somewhat suspiciously.

Albus shook his head at her. “Never mind,” he mumbled. He contemplated something for a few minutes while Alice got them all menus.

Scorpius was, for the most part, quite content to just look around the pub. He had always enjoyed people watching and made it a habit to do a little whenever he got the chance.

“Are you going to get him something again this year?” A whispered voice questioned from the next booth over.

There was a pause, and then another quiet voice answered. “Probably. I mean, I do every year, don’t I? Just because he isn’t aware that it’s me…. Actually, I think I like it that way.”

He could tell that whoever the girl was, (and it was definitely two girls that were having this conversation), she was enjoying the thought of being someone’s secret admirer. 

She giggled slightly. “Besides, I love how he’s always so blasé about it. Then again, it could just be that he really is that oblivious, though you would think that as much time as he’s spent in that particular room, he would figure it out.” She laughed again. 

“Boys are so hopeless sometimes,” her friend said somewhat sympathetically.

“HA! Sometimes? Try always! Especially him! I don’t think he even knew I existed until just recently.” Scorpius could hear the wistfulness in her voice when she said this. He never understood un-requited emotions. Too him it was a simple matter of, ‘tell them how you feel, and deal with the rejection if it comes.’

He scoffed slightly at himself, earning a strange look from Fred. “You alright there, Mate?” Fred asked.

Scorpius grunted and tuned back into the conversation that was going on in the booth behind him. 

“….get him, then?” The first girl was asking.

Although he couldn’t see her, he could practically feel the other girl shrug. “I don’t know,” she said. “Probably the same thing I always do. A me……” she trailed off and Scorpius wondered what it was she was going to say.

There was some rustling and he could hear some quiet whispers, and then suddenly a shadow fell across the table causing the three boys to look up from the menus that they were perusing and pushing all thoughts of the curious conversation between the girls out of Scorpius’s mind. There stood a flushed looking Lily Potter staring Malfoy dead in the eye and a grinning Cham right next to her.

“Lily?” Albus questioned. “What’s the matter?”

She tore her gaze from Scorpius and looked at her older brother. “Nothing.” She told him shortly. Then turning her gaze back to Scorpius, she told him in a cold voice, “Stay out of my head!” She then turned and stormed away.

Once again Scorpius was left spluttering by the dark haired girl. “What did I do?” He asked cluelessly. 

Cham was laughing quietly at the exchange, and even Albus seemed to be at a loss as to what was going on. Turning to the tall blonde girl he asked, “What was that about?” 

Cham rolled her expressive eyes at him and grinned. “If you can’t figure it out, Big Brother,” she said in a saccharine voice, “then I ain’t gonna tell ya.”

“Chameleon.” Albus said in a warning tone, which only made the blonde girl grin more. Scorpius raised his eyebrow at the given name. ‘And I thought I had a rotten name. Now wonder she goes by Cham.’

Appearing out of nowhere once again, Lily grabbed a hold of Cham’s wrist, muttering something along the lines of, “Your Texas is showing, Cham,” and dragged her away from the boys.

As the two girls made what looked to be like a mad dash for the door, they almost ran poor Alice down as they passed by her. Lily stopped inches in front of the waitress and said something that caused Alice to giggle, and then continued on her way out the door. Cham was still being dragged behind her. 

“I see you found your sister, Albus,” Alice said by way of greeting when she came back to the table full of boys. “Did you do something to make her mad again?”

Albus groaned while pushing his hand through his hair. “Why is it that whenever Lily is upset about something, it has to be my fault?” He asked, slightly frustrated.

“Because it usually is your fault.” Fred deadpanned. “Or it’s Rose’s. Either way it boils down to your little group.” Turning to Alice he continued, “Although this time it was neither of them.”

Alice had a questioning look on her face. “Oh?”

Fred had that impish look again. “I don’t know what he did,” the red head flicked his fingers in Scorpius’s direction, “But, he sure did make her mad.”

The look on Alice’s face was a mixture of incredulity and humor. “Scorpius upset her?” She asked. “That Scorpius.” She pointed her finger in his direction, then said, “The one that’s sitting right there?”

Albus raised his head and looked at Alice like she had lost her mind. “Do you know of another Scorpius?” He asked her sarcastically. 

Scorpius looked at her in curiosity.

“No,” she said and then promptly broke down into giggles. “I just….didn’t….. I didn’t…. know it was possible…..for him….for him to make her so angry.” She gasped out between giggles.

“What is that supposed to mean?” The blonde in question asked her.

“Nothing. Nothing at all, ‘O Clueless Ones’.” 

Apparently Fred had grasped onto a little bit of what was going on, because he had started laughing as well.

“Oh, come on! Are you guys going to tell me exactly what is going on, or what?” Scorpius asked in exasperation.

“Or what,” Fred said dryly through his laughter. 

“Don’t worry,” Alice said, “you’ll figure it out. Eventually.” Alice took a deep breath and gathered herself together. “Now, what would you guys like to eat?”

Scorpius groaned. He didn’t like it when Lily was upset with him and then he wondered why he even cared at all, since he just barely met the girl a day ago.

After taking their orders and bringing them their food, Alice joined them for her break.

The conversation turned to Christmas shopping and who they still had to shop for. (How they managed to get on this particular conversation was beyond Scorpius’s comprehension, but talking about it they were.)

Albus was saying something about getting a new easel for someone, but because Scorpius had only been listening to part of the conversation, he didn’t catch who it was they were talking about. Not that it really mattered; there were so many people in the Weasley clan that he just couldn’t keep up. 

Alice turned to him with a knowing grin on her face and a look in her eyes that made Scorpius slightly wary of her. “What are you going to get for her?” The girl asked him.

“Why would he get anything for her?” It was a genuine question that Albus had asked with no rancor whatsoever in his voice. 

Thoroughly confused on what or more like who the two of them were talking about, Scorpius asked, “Get for who?”

Fred snorted into his drink at the blonde’s question, Albus rolled his eyes, and Alice muttered darkly.

“For your information, Albus,” she said with slight venom in her voice, looking at the middle Potter child, “She gets him something every single year! It’s not her fault you guys are so imbecilic that you just don’t realize it!”

“And as for you,” she griped, rounding onto Scorpius, “If you can’t figure out who we’re talking about, then I’m not going to tell you!” With that she got up from the table, took a deep breath and turned back to the boys with a smile on her face.

“My break is over. I hope you guys have a good day shopping. All those crowds….” She shook her head and tsked in mock sadness as she walked away.

“You know?” Fred queried, making the other two turn their attention to him. “I think she’s been spending more time than she probably should with Lily and Cham. All that extra insanity is getting to her head.” He grinned at the two boys with mischief written all over his face.

Switching gears and throwing the other two off completely, the red head said, “We should get going. Don’t want to miss all that fun shopping.” Standing up, he threw a few galleons on the table and grabbed his jacket.

Albus groaned and followed suit, but he turned back when he realized Scorpius was still sitting there. The blonde was lost in thought over Alice’s parting words, but at his friends’ sudden departure, he ripped himself out of his thoughts and threw his own couple of galleons on the table, grabbed his own coat and followed his friends silently out the door.


	6. Crazy Owl Encounters

The Christmas season always seemed to be a bit hectic to Scorpius. People running from here to there, forgetting whatever it was they were going to get and then running back again a few hours later. The hustle and bustle of frantic mothers and the sound of screaming children always seemed to fill the air.

Then there were the annual holiday parties that he would be forced to attend, not only at the Ministry of Magic, but also at his Aunt Daphne’s home. (Who, it must be said, gave Scorpius the creeps.) He would also be expected to attend the Weasley family Christmas party, which he used to always look forward to, but now, with this whole ‘Rose fiasco’, he was rather hesitant to know if he would even be excepted back into the Weasley’s home. He was rather surprised that Albus hadn’t broached the subject with him again since the day that they found Lily in her parlour at Potter Place.

Then again…. he wondered if the reason why Albus had not said anything had to do with said littlest Potter. She did seem to hold a certain sway over her brother, even if he would never admit to it. Scorpius himself would never have even though it had he not seen it for himself very briefly. As it was however, things were still strained between the two boys and it was somewhat difficult to have all the tension going on in their flat. 

It had been a few days since their shopping trip in Diagon Alley and Scorpius was sitting at his kitchen table going over the mail when a vaguely familiar owl flew through the, well, it was a closed window. (Apparently, it wasn’t locked.)   
The owl landed gracefully on the table in front of Scorpius and gave him a baleful look, as if to say ‘You are far inferior to me, and I can’t believe I am being used to deliver mail.’ 

It was a majestic looking owl, Scorpius would give him that. He was a snowy white color with gray tips at the end of his wings and black spots on his feathers. Whoever owned this bird had to be from a very wealthy family. Scorpius was sure of it. The owl held in its beak a small envelope that had to have had some sort of shrinking charm on it and after having a (what seemed like five minutes, but was probably only a few seconds) stare down with the big bird of prey, Scorpius finally spoke.

“Are you going to give me the letter, or are you just going to sit there and look at me?” He asked somewhat irritably. 

The owl squawked loudly, almost dropping the envelope into the bowl of uneaten cereal sitting in front of Scorpius. It quickly regained it and instead, dropped it unceremoniously in the blonde’s lap. Then it flew up into the air, circled around the ceiling a couple times, and zoomed at his head, nipping Scorpius’s ear a little harder than was probably necessary, before flying back out the way he came.

“Ow!” The Malfoy scion grumbled, rubbing at his sore ear. He shook his head at the retreating owl with an indignant look on his face, grumbling about the evilness of all white owls. 

“What’s that you got there, Scor?” Albus asked walking in. His black hair was just as messy as always, though he was dressed rather impeccably in a pair of ironed slacks and a button down shirt.

“Going out somewhere?” Scorpius returned, ignoring the other boy’s question.

Albus shrugged and grabbed a piece of toast off the table that his house elf, Elis, made for them earlier that morning. “I asked you first,” he said giving Scorpius a grin. The grin itself lacked the good humor it usually held when the two boys bantered back and forth and Scorpius was sorry for it.  
“Just a message, I’m assuming. I haven’t enlarged it yet.”   
“Get on with it then. Let’s see it.” Albus was a little more interested in it than Scorpius would have expected, but he enlarged the parchment none the less.

It was beautiful. Awe-inspiring even. It took him back to a much simpler time when all was well in his world and there were few worries, other than winning the next quidditch match and how many inches a piece of parchment neede to be for his next class. Albus was speechless, and the only thought in Scorpius’s mind, was ‘How in the heck had the artist even known about this particular scene?’ 

He must have been at least 15 at the time. The painting showed him sitting in a blue and silver chair in the Ravenclaw common room. His tie was loosened from around his neck and his head was leaning back against the soft cushion of it. His eyes were half open, and in his hand was an open book. The shadows in the picture reflected the light that had to be of a warm fire off to the side, unseen by those looking on.

A little shaken from the walk down memory lane, and wondering how long it was going to be before he actually came face to face with his ‘secret admirer’, ( he refused to think of this person as anything other than that), the blonde re-shrunk the picture and carried it delicately to his room, where he put it in a very special jewel box. 

Albus trailed behind him. “How....? Do you…..? What I mean to say is….” 

“If you’re going to ask me something, then spit it out, I do have some places to be today.” Scorpius didn’t mean to snap, but he had never let anyone know, not even Albus, about these pictures. They had always been something that was special to him, and he refused to let that be ruined by anyone. And if Albus knew about them, the it was a given that Rose would soon know about them as well.

Albus gathered himself together and asked, “Do you know where that picture came from?” At Scor’s shrug, he continued. “It’s just, I recognize the style vaguely and I was wondering of you knew who the artist was?”

Scorpius studied his friend closely, and then sighed and took the plunge. “I’ve been getting these pictures since I was about eight years old. I always receive two a year. One for my birthday and one for Christmas. The one this year came early, but I usually get them on the day of….,’ but he was interrupted.

“NO WAY!” Albus shouted. “You’ve been getting these letters, pictures, whatever they are for over ten years and you don’t have a clue who is sending them to you?” The tone of Albus’s voice was perfectly incredulous, and there was an underlying disbelief that rankled Scorpius’s already tied-up nerves. It was his next question, however, that sent a jolt of shame through the blonde boy. “And why is it, that I never knew about them? I would think that as your best friend, you would have at least told me something about them. 

Scorpius remained quiet as he went to his closet. He pulled out an old weather beaten box and brought it over to his desk. “What is that?” Albus asked as he joined him. At first the Potter boy was absolutely certain his friend was not going to answer him. Scorpius hovered over the box with his hands barely grazing the sides of it. It was as if he were contemplating opening it in Albus’s presence, (which of course, was exactly what he was doing, but Albus didn’t need to know that.) 

“Memories,” was Scorpius’s simple reply. The Malfoy scion sighed, knowing that if he didn’t open the box now and add the portrait to it, he didn’t know when he would be able to do it. He just didn’t want Albus to see the contents of the box. 

Albus gasped at the sight of the dozens of pictures that were in it. Every one of them had been framed in a type of ornate wood, and then shrunk down so that they would all fit inside. Some of the drawings were things that would only have a meaning to Scorpius and no one else, but there were others that Al recognized. 

There was one that caught his eye and he was utterly entranced by it. Reaching in the box at Scorpius’s complete dismay, Albus pulled the picture out and gasped at the absolute beauty and intensity of it. He remembered that night so well. Rose had barged up to the Ravenclaw common room and demanded her way in, then she cried on their shoulders about how Andy Loveless had stolen her cloak and hidden it in the forbidden forest. She had begged the two boys to go with her to get it. And, of course, they did. They had got themselves into a tight mess with the centaurs though, and Albus had been absolutely sure that they were about to be horse food, but then they heard one of the strangest sounds. It was almost like thunder, but with an underlying bell-like tinkling. The next thing they knew, the entire heard of centaurs had taken off in the opposite direction toward the sound and they found Rose’s cloak sitting on a rock just behind where the centaurs had been standing.

The drawing showed the absolute delight on her face, and the stunned disbelief on the face of Albus and Scorpius. The shading and lighting and the colors that had been used made the picture come to life and brought the memory to the forefront of his mind. 

“Whoever this artist is – they seem to know quite a bit about you ,” Albus said. There was an edge to his voice now, especially since he was absolutely certain that he recognized the artist’s style, though he couldn’t be entirely sure. 

“I know,” Scorpius practically breathed.

“Sooo… Why haven’t you told me about these?” Scorpius shrugged and added his most latest acquired painting to the collection, and carefully closed the lid. 

“Wait! Just wait a second,” the black haired boy stayed Scorpius’s hand before the lid shut completely. He pulled out the most recent picture and looked closely at the bottom left corner. The tiny symbol there confirmed his suspicions and with a sigh, he put it back in the box, allowing his friend to close it.

“You’re absolutely certain that you have no idea where these portraits are coming from?” He asked his friend.

“No idea,” was the firm reply. 

“Huh.” Was all Albus said before he reverted back to a topic that neither boy really wanted to discuss.

“Are you going to tell me what happened with Rose, or are you going to keep that a secret as well?” The comment was so sudden and unexpected that at first Scorpius was unsure how to respond. To him, it was as if Albus was attacking him, and his response showed his displeasure at the insinuation that the break up was somehow his fault.

“I’m sure Rose told you everything you need to know about what happened between us,” he replied somewhat bitterly. “It doesn’t matter what I may say about what actually happened anyway, Albus. As I’m sure you’re going to believe her over me no matter what. That’s how it has always been, and I don’t think it will ever change.”

Albus had been told this same thing before by many people, ok mostly only Cham and Lily. But to hear it from his best friend, it seemed to strike a chord in him and he wondered if he really was as biased on Rose’s account as all three of them seemed to think he was. He didn’t give himself much time to ponder it, filing it to the back of his mind to think on later.

“It doesn’t matter anyway, Al,” Scorpius was saying, and Albus raised an eyebrow at him. “What happened between me and Rose is our business and nobody else’s, and that includes you.”

Slightly stunned at his friends declaration and the fact that he had pretty much just been told to mind his own business, Albus watched as his friend of forever grabbed up some clothes and other personal things and threw it all into an overnight bag.

“At the risk of being told to ‘butt out,” Albus began, “where are you going?”

Scorpius looked at Albus for a few moments before answering, “I have been summoned to Malfoy Manor and I don’t know how long I’ll be expected to stay,” he answered. After he had everything he thought he may need, he gave a brief nod to Albus and left their flat.

Maybe it was for the best that he wasn’t going to be sticking around for a couple of days. As he thought about it though, he groaned a little bit to himself, because there was absolutely no way that he was going to stay overnight at the Malfoy family home. ‘Maybe, I can stay at Potter Place, and avoid Albus’ He wondered


	7. Malfoy Manor and Snot-nosed Roses

Malfoy Manor was foreboding in the way all old and prestigious homes were. Large and sprawling with an old gothic look to it and surrounded by a huge wrought iron fence, it was a fortress by itself. It could, if you let it, intimidate the strongest of heart. Scorpius grew up here.   
Many childhood memories flitted through his mind as he made his way up the sprawling terrace steps. But one stood out in the forefront of his mind. It was his eighth birthday, and everybody had shown up for it. (Including some people that he had never seen before). His Great Aunt Andromeda and his second cousin, Teddy had also come. He had a fleeting remembrance of a third person to their party of two, but he was not entirely sure. Also among the attendees were his mother’s sister and her ‘husband’ and daughter. (He wasn’t too thrilled about them, so he mainly focused on his other guests.) 

Andromeda always brought Scorpius some of the best gifts. They were always of the muggle variety and they ALWAYS held some sort of secret magic for Scorpius to figure out. (It was to his grandfather’s utter dismay that his grandson was completely smitten with muggle things.) After opening all of his gifts, the blonde would then proceed to interrogate Andromeda with any and all questions that he might have about whatever object that she brought him that year. On this particular occasion, she had brought him a Rubik’s Cube. To his eight year old mind, this was the coolest thing ever. As the party continued on and the people were coming and going and the other children were playing their games of tag and hide and seek, Scorpius was immersed in trying to solve the puzzle of the cube. He remembered that Andromeda stood near him conversing with someone else, and the Teddy came over and said something quietly to her. 

In hindsight, Scorpius recognized the seed of tension that filled the air in their little area after Teddy walked away, but as he thought on it now, he wondered how much of that tension had anything to do with what followed after, because just as Teddy walked away from his grandmother, there was a shriek in the air the Malfoy scion’s aunt, Daphne Zabini, came storming out into the backyard. She was covered from head to foot; in what Scorpius thought might have been seaweed, though to this very day, he would never be sure of that. As he drew nearer to his screeching aunt, he noticed that she was near hysterical and she was rambling something about toads being in her room and in her dresser, and in her suitcases.

A crowd was gathering around his aunt, as his mother tried to calm her down. He caught a glimpse of his father, who rolled his eyes at the whole scene. Not even to the young boys mind, did this surprise him, Draco Malfoy had always made his sentiments towards Daphne known. He tolerated her only because she was his wife’s sister and for no other reason than that. Isabelle had come rushing over to her mother when she had first come out and was adding to all the fuss and chaos. Though, why it was such a huge deal escaped the blonde boy. Personally, Scorpius happened to like toads very much. Going with the natural instinct of self-preservation, Scorpius chose to keep that thought to himself. 

As if reading his mind, his aunt suddenly stopped all her ruckus and looked at her nephew dead on. “It was you, wasn’t it?” She accused, pointing a finger at the young boy. 

“Um…no?” His answer was a question form, mostly due to the sudden turn of events. He was an only child, and as such he had never really been straight out accused of anything before. Generally speaking, Scorpius had a knock for telling on himself, before anyone ever got the chance to accuse him of anything.

"Why you little –“ 

“Come now, Ms. Daphne,” Andromeda cut across, before Daphne said anything else, “how Scorpius do anything to your room or bags, when the he has been down here the entire time? Perhaps you are overreacting just a little bit?” She finished.

Daphne didn’t say another word, but the daggers that she glared at Andromeda spoke volumes to what was really going on inside her head. She seemed to see the wisdom in Andromeda’s words however, and left the party shortly after that. While this came as no surprise to him, he also realized that in all the drama of his aunt gathering her things and declaring to the Malfoys’ that they would be lucky if they ever saw herself or her family again, his great aunt and Teddy had also disappeared.

He had, of course, asked her later where she had gone off to, but all she did was change the subject, and ask him about how school was going.

The memory made him smile just a little and the little quirk of his lips was still there when he walked into the formal parlour where he knew his mother and grandmother would be. (Merlin forbid they ever use anything as informal as the family room.) He sauntered into the room, ready to give a happy hello, took in every single person that was in there, and promptly turned around to walk out. 

“Scorpius!!” A shrill voice from behind him said. He groaned quietly to himself, spun around with a fake smile plastered to his face and greeted his least favorite aunt. (He tended to over-look that she was his only aunt.) 

“Hullo Aunt Daphne,” he said with a decidedly lack of emotion in his voice. He nodded to his Uncle Blaise who was standing in the corner talking to Draco, and looked around for the demon spawn, *cough, cough* his cousin, Isabelle. He needed to know exactly where she was, so that he could avoid her as much as possible. 

“We were just talking about you Scorpius,” his aunt said in a simpering voice, ignoring his cold greeting. Scorpius thought her pronouncement was a tad on the ironic side, since he had quite literally just been thinking about the events that had caused them to leave and never return all those years ago. He didn’t let her know any of this though and continued to look around the room for his cousin.

His grandmother was sitting in the large sofa chair. It had come to be known as hers and no one dared to sit in it, while his grandfather sat on the duvet. They had identical looks of indifference on their faces. His mother and aunt sat on the large couch drinking tea that the house elf had brought in and there was absolutely no sign of his cousin. This was worrying. 

Opting to protect himself from any surprises from Isabelle, Scorpius asked with what he hoped was an air of indifference, “where’s Isabelle?” 

His father gave him a commiserating look and nodded toward the door in which a tall caramel skinned girl was walking through. She had a dancer’s lithe frame and perfectly clear skin. Her hair was as dark as a moonless night sky and was in tight little curls. She was just about every guys dream to look at. She was Scorpius’s worst nightmare.

“Looking for me…?” Isabelle asked in a saccharine voice, sauntering into the room. 

This time his groan was out loud. “No. Not really.” There was a loud snort that came from somewhere over by his father, but the blonde was hard pressed to know if it was his father or uncle. Both of which knew exactly how Scorpius felt about Isabelle.

“That’s no way to greet your favorite cousin, now is it Scor? Especially when I came with sympathy for you and ideas on how to get her back for all the pain she’s put you through. After all, we can’t let Rose get away with the way she’s treated you!”

Open mouthed, Scorpius stared at her. ‘How in Merlin’s good name could she possibly know about what his breakup with Rose? Nobody in his family had been told about it, and he had planned to keep it that way. There was enough bad blood between the two families as it was.’ Scorpius remembered quite clearly the day that he had told his father that he was dating a Weasley. Draco had been livid at first, and then he turned it into begging and pleading for his son to stop dating the girl. “Weasleys’,” Draco said, “were bad tempered people who only saw things their way and would use him up and then spit him out.”

Scorpius had pointed out to Draco that it was only because he and Ron had never got along that he felt that way. Eventually Draco conceded and quit harping on about the issue. Now however, it seemed by the smug look on Draco’s face that Scorpius would never hear the end of the ‘I told you so’s.’ 

‘Save me now, please! Any type of help would be greatly appreciated…’ His silent plea went out, seemingly unheard. 

“Rose broke up with you?”  
“Why?”   
“When did this happen?”  
“Are you alright?”

The questions started being fired from all corners of the room and the blonde was sure that he wanted to scream. He sighed quietly and briefly glanced at the cause of the current chaos. Isabelle chose just the right thing to say and she said it just loud enough for everyone to hear. 

“First of all,” he said over all the questions, “Rose did not break up with me.” Isabelle gave him a surprised look and Draco’s triumphant grin fell from his face immediately. Scorpius could not be sure, but he swore that Daphne had just sighed in relief. “I broke up with her,” he continued, and there again was the happy grin from his father. Before anyone could say anything, Scorpius held up his hand. “Let me finish,” he said. “I’m not going to go into any details about why we broke up, but I will tell you that it has been a couple weeks since it happened, and yes Mom. I’m fine. It’s been a while in coming.”

As he made this speech he took in everyone in the room. His uncle, grandmother, and grandfather looked as if they could care less. His mother, Scorpius could tell by the look on her face, that she was worried for his well-being, while his father was entirely too happy about the situation. His aunt and cousin were the two people in the room with the reactions that were the strangest. 

Isabelle seemed almost giddy with the information, in which he chalked up to her being a gossip monger, and Daphne looked almost green after the knowledge had been revealed. Almost squeaking as she cleared her throat, she asked him, “is there no chance that you will get back with her?”

Scorpius gave her a strange look and shook his head at her. It seemed that he was not the only person in the room that thought it was a strange comment as well. Everyone else was looking at her weirdly also. Turning back to Isabelle, he found her studying him in an intense manner.

“What?” He asked rather gruffly. 

All his cousin did was to shrug her shoulders at him in an irritating way. “Nothing,” she replied. She leaned closer to him as if to impart some great wisdom and whispered quietly, “if I were you, I would get out of here before my mother…. Well, just get out of here.” She winked and walked away from him. After she was across the room from him, it occurred to the blonde that he still had absolutely no idea how Isabelle had come across the knowledge of his break up.

~SLSLSL~

Scorpius left as quickly as he could after that happened. He made sure to speak with his grandmother and grandfather about what was going on in the world around them. (His grandfather did not get out of the house much anymore.) He kissed his mother on the cheek, bid his aunt and uncle goodbye, and nodded at his father. Then, making his way to the grounds outside, the Malfoy heir apperated away. 

Scorpius had spent the rest of the day and well into the night apperating aimlessly around England. He found himself on the craggy cliffs of Cornwall, and wandering the streets of London. He ended up in what he thought was the Forest of Dean and then on the banks of the Tamar River. By the time he realized how late it was, he was thoroughly exhausted and had no desire in returning to his own flat where he was absolutely certain that he would end up in some altercation with Albus. 

In his mind’s eye he clearly pictured a warm fire and a couch in a room filled with art and pictures of loved ones along with an atmosphere of pure serenity. The next thing he knew, Scorpius found himself standing just inside Lily Potter’s parlor in Potter Place. Scorpius looked around him, wondering just how on earth he had managed to get here. It was one thing to apperated all over England, but to get inside the wards of the Potters’ home was magic beyond the Malfoy scion’s comprehension.  
As he got his bearings around him straight, he realized that the atmosphere wasn’t quite as calm as he imagined. As a matter of fact the very air in the room seemed as if it were cackling with an angry energy. Remembering something that Albus had mentioned about the room responding to Lily’s moods, Scorpius went to look for the dark haired girl. He did not stop to consider why it bothered him so much that she was upset.

A bitter bark of a laugh led him to the second floor alcove. There he found Cham and Rose in what looked like a head to head altercation. “You can’t do that to him! Not only is it wrong, but what do you think your parents are going to say when they find out that what you’re saying is an outright lie?” Cham asked vehemently. 

“What do you care? You think that just because she has feelings for him, he’s going to turn away from what he will be his duty. She won’t be able to stop it from happening, and neither will you!” Rose fired back. 

Scorpius had no idea what the two girls were talking about and just as he was about to intervene, the fight looked as if it were about to become physical, Lily came storming up behind him. Her deep green eyes were flashing and her dark hair looked windblown. She barely glanced his way as she pushed past him. 

Locking her eyes on her cousin, Lily glared the red haired witch down. Scorpius expected her to start yelling and screaming at Rose in the same way that he sometimes heard Mrs. Potter get after James and Albus. But apparently Lily was Harry’s child through and through. The temperature became positively cold in the hallway. “You won’t get away with it,” she said through gritted teeth. “I won’t let you. I’ll do everything in my power to put a stop to your little plan.” With that said, she started to climb up the loft stairs that led to her room.

Before she fully disappeared, Lily turned around and said in an even colder voice than before, (if that was even possible,) “If you ruin Teddy and Victoire’s announcement, I will seriously ruin your life!” 

The hallway was silent for a few seconds after that, but then Rose broke out into a maniacal smile. “She’s so dramatic. She won’t do anything.”

Beyond lost at what exactly the argument between the girls was about, the blonde boy made his way back to the little parlor. He found himself at an even bigger loss for understanding when he came across Lily Potter in all her dark haired, green eyed glory laying across her favorite two person chair with her eyes closed. ‘Just how in the H*** did she make it from the top-most part of the house down to the parlor without being seen or heard, and before I got here!?’ 

A tired, whispering sigh escaped the girl and Scorpius swore that he saw tears coming from her eyes. Her voice, when she spoke though was strong, and there was not an ounce of sadness when she said, “If you’re coming in here to sit down and relax, then so be it, but will you please do me a favor?” At his questioning look, Lily continued, “don’t think. Just shut your brain off. I don’t want to hear any of your thoughts, or questions about what just happened or how I got here before you, or, well, really, anything. Just…Zen….” She trailed off into what could only be a sleep like quality.

“Zen?” he asked.

“Shhh….” was his answer. He walked over to her and saw that she really had fallen asleep. She looked so peaceful, almost childlike in her sleep. The almost unnoticeable worry lines that crinkled around her eyes were smoothed over, and her mouth was curved in a faint grin. Looking at her now, Scorpius could almost believe that the girl was no more than ten years old, instead of the seventeen year old he knew her to be. 

She shivered slightly, and a blanket appeared out of thin air onto the back of the chair. He couldn’t help but feel as if roles had been reversed somehow as a sense of déjà vu washed over him. 

He covered her up, almost tenderly, and started to turn to make his way over to the couch, but Lily’s hand shot out from underneath the blanket and she pulled, hard. Scorpius found himself almost on top of the small girl, and wondered what Harry would think of this if he should walk in.

“Sleep, Scorpius. Don’t think. Just sleep,” came the voice from underneath him. He would have been seriously amused if Albus had found himself in this situation. But since it was not Albus, but himself and his best friend’s little sister, he voted for self-preservation. So thinking, he made to get himself up. Lily apparently had other ideas. Her arms tightened around Scorpius and the more he moved, the tighter she held on. He also noticed that she seemed to become more agitated in her sleep every time he went to move away from her. 

He whispered to her soothing nothing words and resigned himself to sleeping on the chair wrapped up in her arms. Not that he was complaining, he just really didn’t want to face the wrath of the Potter men, and one Teddy Lupin. 

Once he was finally settled in next to her with his own arm being used as a pillow, and his breathing had evened out to where he was sleeping peacefully and there were not stray thoughts being tossed into the atmosphere, Lily opened her eyes and breathed a small sigh of relief. For just this small moment in time, everything in Lily’s world was calm. 

In a couple of days she would have to face down her mad, crazy cousin in front of her entire family. She would have to protect Scorpius from lies that he knew nothing about and eventually she would have to explain to him why she was different. Well, that one part was only if he was as interested in her as she hoped he was. Otherwise, it wouldn’t matter. 

As Lily was drifting off to sleep with these happy thoughts in mind, Cham came hurrying into the room. Seeing that her friend was practically asleep, the blonde girl gave her friend a sly wink as she breathed a sigh of relief. “We’ll talk later,” she mouthed to Lily and left the parlor.

Lily grinned at Cham’s back and snuggled in closer to Scorpius and finally succumbed to sleep. It had been a very long day.


	8. In Dreams

Harry tumbled through the floo into his private office. He never did get the hang of fire place travel and aside from port-keys, it was still probably his least favorite way to go. It had been a long day at work and most of his staff was down to a skeleton crew right now. Ginny had left one of the smaller lamps on for him and he shut it off making his way out into the darkened hallway. He knew his wife despised his late nights at the office just as much as he did. He despised them even more when he had to work them over the holidays, especially when his daughter was visiting.

However, it was his duty to the wizarding world to keep it as safe as he possibly could. He knew that Lily had not come home just because her mother had asked her too. Sure, that probably had a lot to do with it, but Lily was not a child of whim. When she did something, there was always a purpose or a reason for it. Now all he had to do was figure out exactly what it was his daughter was up to – and she was always up to something.

He figured that whatever it was, it probably had to do with that group she and Cham were talking about a couple weeks ago. The ‘Lux Lucis Effrego’. As oblivious as his wife and closest friends liked to claim that he was, he was made youngest head auror for a reason – and it was not because of his wizarding world status. Harry had taken his seeking skills and turned them into fine-tuned attention to details. He had not missed the look that passed between Lily and Cham when the ‘Lux Lucis Effrego’ had been brought up at dinner when they first arrived. Nor had he missed how the two girls skimmed over the topic and changed the subject as quickly as they could. He also did not miss his niece paling in color. 

The whole situation had been troubling him for days, so he did dome research and what little bit he found on the group was even stranger than anything Luna Scamander, herself could come up with. 

‘Bleh,’ was what he thought of it right now. He would worry more about it after Christmas was over. 

He walked down the darkened hallway only to stop just in front of Lily’s parlour. Though they were distant and vague at best, he had fond memories of this room. Harry knew that at one point in time many years ago, his mother sat in this very parlour and played with him. (He liked to believe that this was the reason that the room had taken such a strong liking to his daughter.) 

There was a small fire cackling in the grate, which the black-haired man thought was quite odd. Ginny would never allow a fire to go unattended in the house, even if the room was sentient. As he made his way toward the fire to put it out, he sighed tiredly and made a mental note to get after Lily in the morning about this. 

The fire gave a merry pop and a shuffling sound caught his ear. Harry turned around quickly, wand at the ready, and stood there too dumbfounded for words. He was absolutely certain that his eyes were deceiving him. They had to be, because there was no way that Scorpius Malfoy would be dumb enough to break up with Harry’s niece, and then be asleep with his daughter in her private parlour a week later.

Harry blinked. Then he took off his glasses and wiped them down with his robes, replaced them on his face and looked again. And he blinked again. That was definitely his daughter on the couch with Scorpius Malfoy. She looked serene and peaceful. It was a look that Harry had rarely ever seen on his daughter’s face before.

As he stood there watching the two of them with the shadows of the fire dancing on their faces, he was taken back to some of the rare occasions when it was just he and Ginny and quietude. His life had never been easy, and although Lily had never been abused as her father had, her life had been just as difficult.

Who was he then, Harry figured tiredly, to come in and scream at the two of them. Besides, they were just sleeping, (and he had never liked seeing Rose and Scorpius together anyway.)

Merlin, he was exhausted. The savior of the wizarding world glanced one more time at the sleeping couple, he was certain that neither of them would appreciate being called a couple, and he went to bed.

~SLSLSL~

She woke up in one of the last places she wanted to be. White mist covered the ground she was laying on and she could make out the glint of a beautiful silvery full moon reflecting off of a lake that was beyond the not-so-distant wood line. This was the Black Forest, home to the Blue Lady and her nightmare creatures. (Personally, Lily liked the Blue Lady – when she wasn’t threatening your life, she was very entertaining. At least she gave you warning before attempting to kill you.) She was not, however in the forest itself, but the grassy fields that connected the Realm of Dreams to the Realm of Nightmares.

Sitting up, she shook the grogginess from her head. The Nightmare realm was probably the most dangerous place, (though Cham had told her about a much deeper, scarier part). ‘Speaking of Cham, just where exactly is she?’ Lily wondered. This was not a trip that she could have made on her own. To enter a dream through your sub-conscious was one thing, but to enter the realm itself – well, it just couldn’t be done without a realm-walker. And Cham was the only one that Lily personally knew that did not have a vendetta against her.

The air surrounding the area where she was sitting suddenly got quiet. The frogs stopped croaking, the nightingale stopped singing, and the owls stopped hooting. Even the little glow worms and lightning bugs stopped flashing their lights. Lily stood up as quickly and quietly as she could, and hissed as a sudden jolt of pain shot through her ankle.

She ignored that and tried to figure out exactly why everything had gone so eerily silent. The full moon’s extra brightness gave her a clear view of everything that was out there. The field was wide open, and riddled with lush grass and wild flowers. She could see the Silver Mountains in the east, rising up over the horizon, but not close enough for her to get to. Far to the north (very far to the north), was where the Fae people hid themselves away from all of civilization. Then there was the Wastelands of Oblivion in the west. None of these places were very optional for protection at this point in time. The only place that had any kind of protection from whatever evil may be lurking was the forest. She really did not want to go there. 

She heard it then. It was a faint howling sound that was quickly joined by more howling. It was enough for her to know why everything had gone silent. She looked up at the full moon, thinking that it was no longer as beautiful as she originally thought.

Those howls were not the howls of regular wolves, nor were they the howls of werewolves. No – these were merely dogs. Great big wolf – like dogs. They were the height of a Great Dane, with the mass and teeth of a tiger, and the speed of a cheetah. These dogs belonged to the Hunter, and it was the night of the full moon.

Right. She was screwed.

She calculated her options: A) make a mad dash to the trees, hope and pray to every deity that is out there that those beasts don’t pick up her scent, and take her chances with the nightmares within the Black Forest, or B) stay here in the middle of the open fields and become dinner. 

The howling became louder. She decided to take her chances with the nightmares. She had done it before; she figured she could do it again.

She ignored the pain in her ankle as she made a mad dash for the tree-line. She really wished she knew just how in Merlin’s name she came to be here. 

It had been a long time since the Potter girl had visited the Black Forest, and she remembered swearing quite vehemently, that she was never coming back again. It wasn’t called the Black Forest for nothing. During the brightest hours of the day, it was almost dark as night, and in the night-time hours, well – Lily liked to compare it to a black hole. She moved as swiftly as she could through the forest, all the while keeping a keen ear out for the Hunter and his dogs. The tallest trees that she knew of grew up around the lake in the center. Cham had told her once that if she ever got lost in here, those trees would be the safest. “Lily,” she said, “if you can climb high enough up those trees, there is nothing in this forest that can hurt you. The higher you go, the closer you are to the light. And light is the most feared thing in any nightmare.

She could feel eyes on her as she moved, and it took everything she had within her to hold her fear in check. It was not wise to allow the creatures of this forest to sense any fear. Another howl came from behind her and then some crashing through the underbrush. The hunt was getting closer. (And if she didn’t know any better, they had picked up her scent.) She squeaked and ignored Cham’s obnoxious voice in her head that was making fun of her for doing so, and ran even harder and faster towards the moon-lit lake. Her ankle was killing her by this point. Tears were running down her cheeks from the pain and she felt like she was about to collapse from the intensity of the pain.

Lily kept glancing behind her to make sure that the Hunter’s dogs had not gotten any closer, but she really could not see anything through the darkness and her teary eyes. She turned back around just in enough time to slam right into a warm body, taking them both down and twisting her ankle all over again.

~SLSLSL~

He blinked as he slowly woke up, his eyes adjusting to the darkness as he came to. Whispered voices carried on the back of the wind as it blew through the trees, and he gasped, barely containing a groan as he sat up with a jerk. ‘Just where in the heck am I?’ He was lying on a very wet ground and there was something large and rough next to his cheek. There was very little light filtering from the moon through the trees, and everything was cast into shadows, making for a very creepy atmosphere. 

Scorpius sat up slowly trying to push the disorientation and fogginess out of his mind. He remembered quite clearly going to sleep in Lily’s parlour – and now… he was here. The Malfoy heir was quite sure that he had been here before; (he recognized the wild scent of this place), he just couldn’t quite put his finger on when. Pushing these thoughts aside, he looked around wondering if Lily was going to be a part of this particular dream. He hadn’t had very many dreams of her, but whenever he did – they were always very…interesting. Not finding his object of interest, the blonde stood up slowly and decided to try to get an idea of where he was.

He was sitting in a very small clearing. Trees and underbrush were everywhere the eye could see and there was no visible path out. He could hear water trickling nearby and he followed the sound to a hidden stream that was nestled in between two very steep land banks. The moon glowed brightly off the water, but Scorpius noted that there were still trees that grew near enough that a person could hide in the shadows. There was a log raft that was sitting on the bank of the stream as if waiting just for him. 

Shrugging his shoulders, he figured he would just go with what the dream gave him to get out of the creepy clearing. He was certain that he wasn’t in the right place anyway. So deciding, he made his way down to the river raft. The second his body was completely on the raft, it started to move, as if there was an invisible force plowing it through the water. 

Scorpius didn’t know how long he had been on that raft before it finally moved over toward the bank of the river. It could have been mere minutes, or it could have been days, but it felt like forever. The entire time he sat there on that raft, he could not shake the feeling that he was being followed. There was an intense feeling of malice in the air, and he had his guard up the entire time. 

Finally the raft started moving to the bank of the stream. The land was not so steep here and there was a bit less foliage also. However, the air was filled with ten times the tension and danger that it had been when he had been floating along on the little stream. He took note to be more cautious and instantly walked head first into a tree that he knew for a fact had not been standing there seconds before.

Instant giggling caught the blonde man’s attention and he looked around to see two small creatures no higher than his knee laughing at him. Their skin was brown, leathery, and wrinkled all over. They had the tails of a monkey, the ears of a bat, and the wizened eyes of an old head-master. He hoped that they were not out to hurt him in any way as he had no means to truly defend himself. (Scorpius only now realized that he happened to be wand- less.) Then again, they were laughing rather joyfully, obviously at him, but at least the laughter was not malicious.

He shook his head, which protested in pain, and glared at the new creatures balefully. A million different questions went through his mind at once, but the one that popped out of his mouth was, “What type of creatures are you?”

The giggling stopped instantly. One of them hissed and bared their pointy teeth. Scorpius flinched back in automatic response. He really didn’t mean to offend, but he was getting rather tired of this particular dream and was beginning to just want to wake up, but something was holding him here, and he needed to find out what it was.

“The better question, Dreamwalker, would be – what are you doing here?” The voice that answered him was deep and rumbling and sinister. He felt the air cool at least ten degrees as this new creature made his presence known. The two small creatures had scampered into the bushes and hid themselves away. For his part, Scorpius remained outwardly calm, though he was shaking with fear inside.

“I’m not really sure,” he replied warily to the query. “But there is something I’m supposed to be doing here. I just don’t know what it is…,” he trailed off. “Do you think you could help me?”

“This place is not safe for your kind, Dreamwalker,” the creature answered. “However, as I am bound by certain promises, I will offer my assistance to you. But only until you have safely retrieved what you have come to get. This place is dangerous, especially tonight.” The dark creature, (which Scorpius still had not actually seen), muttered this last part under his breath. 

‘What’s so special about tonight that makes it so dangerous,’ he wondered. But the shadow creature, as Scorpius had deemed him in his head, had already started moving on.

“Come young Dreamwalker!” the creature commanded, and Scorpius took note of the steel in the creature’s voice and started moving his feet. “Bring your nargle friends as well. They have better eyes in the darkness of the forest than any other creature here.” 

At first Scorpius was confused. ‘Just what in Merlin’s name was a ‘nargle’?’ Luna had spoken of nargles before, but just like everything else that she spoke of, he dismissed as part of her craziness. Then he heard more giggling and he turned around to see the little brown creatures grinning up at him. He really wanted to wake up. 

On and on they walked through the forest. The trees and underbrush got thicker in some places and thinned out in others. He felt as if he was being led on a merry chase for no other reason than his subconscious wanted to have fun. He tried to come up with reasons why he would be having such a strange dream, especially since it was such a rarity that he dreamed at all. The clarity of the dream was so strong that he just didn’t know what to think. On occasion he would come out of his thoughts and try to question the shadow creature about what it was he was supposed to be retrieving or why the creature kept calling him ‘Dreamwalker’.

The creature was very good at turning everything into a riddle.

He sighed in relief when they stopped rather abruptly, and then groaned when he realized that they were still deep in the forest. They were in another clearing; very different from the one that he had woke up in. Just beyond the tree-line, a fire burned bright and strong. Its shadows danced off of the rocky cliffs behind it. Scorpius could barely make out a hole in the face of the rock, and he came to the conclusion that it was some kind of cave. 

Two women sat around the fire. Well, one of them was sitting. Her head was in her hands as if she was in a deep thought, while the other seemed as if she were dancing gleefully around the fire.

“This is as far as I can take you, Dreamwalker,” the shadow creature said. There was a note of fear or derision in his voice, (Scorpius really couldn’t tell which), as the creature stared out at the beings in front of him. “Before I go, I will leave you with this piece of advice.” The shadow creature waited for Scorpius to give him his full attention. Once he had it, the creature continued, “DO NOT let them,” he motioned with his shadowy head towards the fire and the beings around it, “catch you! If they do, things could turn out very badly, and not just for my world, but for yours also.”

“I don’t understand what you’re…” Before he could even finish his thought, however, the shadow creature was gone. 

Scorpius sighed in frustration. He had no idea what was going on or why he was even here. And wasn’t this just a stupid dream anyway? He pinched himself. Hard. He was surprised to note that it hurt and a small red welt was appearing where he had abused his skin. ‘Well isn’t that just grand?’ he asked himself. Now he really wanted to know where he was and how he got here, though he still clung to some small hope that this was all some crazy and insane dream cast over him

So lost in thought was he, that at first he didn’t even pay attention to what was going on just past the tree line. The sound of raised voices caught his attention and as silently as he possibly could he went over to the trees to find out what was going on. Curiosity was going to be the death of him yet. He was absolutely sure of it.

“All we need is the heart and the jewel. We have everything else,” the one that had been dancing around the fire said. Her voice crackled with an edge of anticipation. She looked young, though she could have been any age. The words that she used seemed to be of the ‘Olde English’ variety.

“There is no way you will be able to get away with this. If Maorigan finds out –“ the girl that sat upon the log in front of the fire seemed to be younger than the dancer, and though bravely speaking, there was an undercurrent of fear that was clear to anyone that was listening.

The older woman made a hissing sound that came from the back of her throat, and Scorpius flinched in fright at the sound. Even the small nargles seemed to be afraid as they jumped back from the pure evil of the sound. “She will not find out,” dancer girl said malevolently. The younger cringed in her seat. “She has hidden herself away in the forsaken North. She and her crows have left this part and ‘retired’ as those measly humans call it. Had she stayed, she might have been able to come into a glorious reign when all of this is over. But, alas –,“ The speaker made a quiet ‘tsk –ing’ sound and then laughed in clear and unadulterated evil glee.

And then stopped. As a matter of fact, everything seemed to stop. Out on the winds came the sound of a howl so intense and so frightening, that not only did the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, but Scorpius could swear that the hair at the very tips of his head was standing on end. 

“The hunter is out tonight?” He heard one of the girls (most likely the younger) ask in confusion.

“Well, it is a full moon tonight,” was the reply.

Scorpius looked at the sky. It wasn’t a full moon, but he was certain that it would be the next evening. He didn’t know much about folk-lore, but he knew enough to know that on the ‘three’ nights of the full moon, a person was not to be outside.

“But the hunter has not been out since Maorigan went to the North,” said the confused voice once again.

He was not sure, but he could swear that the other girl shrugged at her companion before she answered. “Perhaps he was bored and decided to do something. Danu knows, I’m tired of watching him sulk!”

“But he made it abundantly clear that he would not hunt again until the day he felt his sister’s magic pulse through our lands again, or his mother made her presence known.”

There was silence in the clearing for a moment. All that could be heard was the cackling of the fire. Then the older woman, who was kneeling in front of the fire, stood up quickly with a sinister smile on her lips. “Perhaps a mortal child has found her way to our realm, and our esteemed hunter has decided to go for a look-see,” she said.

She started to walk slowly around the fire, looking at the ground intently. The nargles who had sensed the danger that was within this woman had been pulling on Scorpius’s arm for quite some time now, but he had been quite readily ignoring them. However their insistent nagging and the sudden change in the demeanor of the woman made the Malfoy scion more alert than he already had been.

As she reached the other side of the fire, directly across from where Scorpius was hiding in the bushes and the tree-line, the woman looked up. Right into Scorpius wide grey eyes. 

“Well, well, I think we have company, Sister,” she said and began making her way over to the bushes.

He scrambled back and made a mad dash out of that particular clearing. By the time the woman got over to where she had seen the grey eyes shining out at her, there was nothing to find. But she smelled the scent of fear, and knew that a young mortal had heard everything that had been said. It was of no matter to her though. Her plans would come to fruition and the young man would play his part well. She was sure of it.

~SLSLSL~

Scorpius ran with no exact idea of where he was going. The nargles, he realized with a little bit of surprise were keeping very good pace with him. He felt somewhat safer with them by his side. Although he was not sure why since he was not sure what kind of protection they could provide. 

He looked back one more time to see if the woman from the clearing had followed him. She was nowhere to be seen though, and this gave him a great sense of relief. That is, until he slammed into something very hard and yet very soft at the same time. 

The wind had been knocked out of him when he fell to the ground and he was having a very hard time catching his breath. From below him, he heard a soft moan, and he felt small human like hands push at his chest trying to get him to move.

He scrambled off as quickly as he could and did his best to get a good look at the second thing that he had run face first into tonight. In the moonlight that streamed brokenly through the trees, he could make out pearly white skin, midnight black hair, and eyes the color of dark green. 

Lily.

The situation was so incredibly surreal to him. He pinched himself. Again. Harder than he did last time and it still hurt. 

“This is not a dream, Scorpius,” Lily said through gritted teeth. 

His response was quick and sardonic – “A guy can wish, right?”

Lily did not seem amused. “You can wish all you want, but it’s not going to get us out of here.” She looked at him contemplatively for a moment, and he stirred uncomfortably under her intense gaze. “How did you get here?” she asked him suddenly.

At a loss for words, all he could say was “huh?” ‘Very eloquent indeed.’ He was beginning to feel like he was always at a loss for words around her. Even in dreams that were apparently reality. How did that even work exactly….?

She continued to stare at him as if trying to find some secret into his soul. The scrutiny was making him feel nervous and even more on edge than he had been to begin with. She shifted her gaze more directly to his and he couldn’t help but to get almost lost in the moonlight and her very deep green eyes. ‘Since when did I become a poet?’ he asked himself. He swore he saw her turn just a little pink before she looked away from him and to the surrounding area.

Before he could dwell anymore on that, she asked him again, “How did you get here, Scorpius?”

“I don’t know,” he said honestly. “One minute I was asleep on the couch in that parlour of yours,” he continued, deliberately leaving out the part that she had been with him when he fell asleep, “and the next I was waking up in a tiny little clearing with only a stream and a river raft as a way out.” 

Lily looked at him again. There was something different about him, his aura was off somehow, and she needed to figure out what it was. She felt as if their very survival depended on it. Especially since she knew the hunter and his dogs would be along soon. 

“So, you took the little raft down river – and then what?”

“The raft pulled over onto a bank and I got off.” If he thought it was odd that she didn’t ask him about how the raft seemed to know to pull over he made no mention of it. She seemed to be mulling over this piece of information. 

Anticipating her next question, he interrupted her by saying, “when I climbed up into the trees, I met these two little nargles,” at the mention of them, the little nargles made themselves known to Lily and started dancing around where she still sat on the ground, “and a shadow creature that led me to another clearing and then he left.”

Lily laughed at the silliness of the nargles, her smile reaching all the way to her eyes, and making Scorpius’s breath hitch in his chest. She glanced up at him again quickly and then looked away muttering to herself, “I still don’t understand how you got here.”

“Dreamwalker! Dreamwalker! Dreamwalker!” The nargles started chanting.

“WHAT!?” 

Scorpius looked away sheepishly. “That’s what the shadow creature kept calling me,” he answered uncomfortably. He did not understand what a ‘dreamwalker’ was exactly, but he was not comfortable with the title, nor was he comfortable with the horror that was etched across Lily’s beautiful face.

“No. No. Nonononono. This can’t be happening. YOU!” She yelled, scrambling up and wincing in pain at her ankle. “You’re not supposed to be a dreamwalker!! You’re supposed to be my brother’s annoying best friend who ignores me and pretends that I don’t exist!” 

She had moved closer to him in her rant and was now standing inches from his face. She slammed her small fist into his chest as she ranted about the unfairness of it all, and he, for the most part, allowed her to yell, even though he still had no idea what in the hell she was going on about. 

As she carried on muttering about ‘stupid wizards hiding certain powers’ (Scorpius took offense to that, as he knew she was talking about him,) and ‘dumb fae who think they can do whatever they want’; he took note of the way she favored one leg over the other. There were very real tears in her eyes, and he had no idea if they were from the pain in her foot that she was obviously trying to hide form him, or from her anger about him supposedly being a dreamwalker. 

“Are you even listening to me!?” She practically screeched.

“I –“ was all he got out of his mouth before they heard the howl of one of the hunter’s dogs.

“Oh. Merlin.” Lily said, looking up at Scorpius with very real fear in her eyes. She shuddered and hugged herself causing Scorpius to want to put his arms around her and hold her tight.

“We’re doomed, Scorpius,” she said quietly, forgetting her previous anger in light of this much heavier predicament. “Unless…” She looked around where they were standing and he watched in complete awe as she limped her way around to the different trees placing her hand lightly on it. Nothing happened with the first five or six trees that she touched, and her eyes got very wide as she heard the hunter coming closer to where they were hidden. The seventh tree that she touched, to Scorpius’s utter amazement, turned a light gold under Lily’s soft touch.

She turned toward him with a tremulous, but determined look. “We can do one of three things here, Malfoy.” He nodded to let her know that he was listening, even though he inwardly winced at her use of his last name.

“We can climb this tree to the very top and hope and pray that the hunter doesn’t decide to wait us out, which he will,” she said with the last part with such force that Scorpius wondered how she knew exactly what the hunter would do. 

“I guess that’s not an option then,” he was surprised to hear that his voice did not waver. “What else?”

Her eyes narrowed at him dangerously and flashed with repressed anger. Quietly, as if trying to hold in her frustration, which she was, she said, “you could try to figure out how to make that dreamwalker magic of yours work and get us the heck out of here.” 

He ran his hand through his hair in frustration, the only outward sign of what he was feeling. Taking a deep breath he said, “Lily. How can I figure out how to use a type of magic that you claim I have, when I didn’t even know that I had it. AND! I don’t even know what a dreamwalker is!?” 

Lily bristled visibly at his tone but Scorpius didn’t care. He was tired of being accused of being something that he just knew he wasn’t. “What’s the third option, Lily?” He asked before she could make some rebuttal. He could hear the dogs rushing through the woods, and from the sounds of it, they were getting closer. The nargles were cowering low under some bushes.

The Potter girl paused. Her fast refute died on her tongue at his question. She shook her head and her hair fell into her face. If Scorpius had not known any better, he would have sworn that Lily Potter was embarrassed. 

“The third option, Lily? What is it? We don’t have a lot of time here,” he said earnestly.

“You can invoke….” she muttered.

“What?”

She sighed, in frustration, or embarrassment, he wasn’t sure. In a louder voice she said, “You can invoke your right to hunt as a Dreamwalker in this realm. You would be safe from the hunter as he would see you as a comrade and not as a foe.” 

“And you,” he couldn’t help but ask. “How would that help to keep you safe from the hunter?” He was pretty sure he knew the answer, but he wanted to hear her actually say it. Some little voice in his head told him that it was kind of cruel to draw it out of her like that, but she was so aloof all the time, that it was like a balm to his prickled pride to see her even slightly embarrassed.

She froze for a moment, and he was unsure if she would continue on. He watched her silently steel her nerves, shaking her dark hair out of her face. He could just barely make out the slight points at the tips of her ears. ‘If this really was the land of the Fae, like I am beginning to think that it is, then Lily Potter could fit right in.’ He mused silently. 

Lily’s quiet but determined voice brought him back to the task at hand. “For me to be safe, you would have to claim me as your prize.” 

His immediate response was, ‘I can do that.’ He held his tongue though. There was something about the way that she had looked away from him that bothered him. Moving closer to her, he tentatively touched her shoulder. She looked like a forlorn and wary little girl-child, and he wanted nothing more in that moment to protect her from whatever evils in the world might exist. “Hey. What is it? What’s the matter with the last option? It doesn’t sound too bad.”

The dark haired girl made a growling sound in the back of her throat and pulled out of his grasp. She moved over to the tree that she had talked about climbing and leaned against it as casually as possible, shifting her weight off of her bad ankle. Inside she was writhing in pain. ‘Words have power in this realm,” she began, but she got no further than that.

The loud crashing of trees, underbrush, and leaves was all they heard before six very large wolf-looking dogs barreled through into the very clearing that they were in. The two nargles that were, for the most part completely forgotten about up until this moment shrieked and took off into the woods. Lily jumped at the sound of all of the racket and mad a beeline for Scorpius, hurting her ankle for a third time that night. The dogs ignored the nargles and surrounded the two humans.

The hunter followed the path of his animals into the clearing and stopped in front of them. He was tall and ethereally beautiful. His hair was as white as the freshest and cleanest snow, and it gleamed brightly in the moonlight. His eyes were a sharp cutting blue and all that could be seen in them was cruelty and mockery, and his face was sharp and angular.

“What have we here?” he asked them in a voice as smooth as velvet. He circled around the two of them taking notice that the girl stood slightly in front of the young man as if protecting him. The hunter grinned in malice at the thought that this child might think she could beat him at his own game. 

He walked closer to them and Lily shied away from his presence. “It seems that I have finally caught up to my prey. You led me on quite the merry chase.” The fae leaned into her space running his finger down her cheek. “What a pretty little thing you are,” he whispered. “Jewel-keeper.” Lily held in her gasp at the sound of that particular name. 

She eyed him defiantly while her mind spun in circles looking for a way out. She really wished Scorpius would figure out how to use his power, or at least claim his right to the hunt; consequences be damned. ‘Stupid Malfoy!’ 

For his part, Scorpius was not just idly standing by. He was trying to think of a way out of the situation without having to invoke his ‘hunting right’. There had been something about the way she shied away from that particular option that made him consider finding a different way out.

As he thought on their current predicament, he once again came to the debate of ‘is this all or dream?’ If it was, he could just invoke his right, they would wake up and all would be well. Right? 

By the way the hunter was ogling Lily, it was beginning to not matter if this was a dream or not. A streak of pure possessiveness shot through Scorpius as the hunter leaned down into Lily’s personal space. Not wanting to examine the emotion, but also not liking the lustful look on the hunter’s face, he jumped in front of Lily and grabbed the hunter’s hand before he could so much as touch a strand of hair on Lily’s pretty head.

The surprise that was seen on the hunter’s face was gone in a millisecond, though if Scorpius had turned around, he would have seen it mirrored in Lily’s face as well. However, smart boy that he was, the blonde kept his face to the enemy and his back to the girl.

The hunter let out a bark of a laugh, though the humor didn’t quite reach his eyes, and his mouth curled into a snarl. “Who are you? The jewel-keeper’s protector?” his voice was mocking in the most terrible of ways, his face was snarling. 

“I’m not the jewel-keeper!” Lily insisted. Scorpius was certain that she would have stomped her foot if it had not been for her injury.

The hunter was surprised at the sheer audacity of the boy to challenge him in such a way. The two humans stood before him, though not quite cowering in the way that the hunter would like, he could smell their fear.

The girl grasped hold of the young man’s shirt from behind. Though her eyes were wide, she reeked more of apprehension of what was to come than fear of the hunter. The boy drew her closer to him in a way that the hunter recognized quite well. He doubted, however that the boy knew what he was doing.

“Do you stake a claim to this mortal girl, human?” he asked in his cruel voice. 

Scorpius opened his mouth to answer but was cut off before a word was even uttered. “HA!” the hunter exclaimed, eyes gleaming brightly. “But you cannot stake a claim, can you? You are not Fae, nor do you have any Fae magic running through your veins, nor do you belong to the hunt on this night!”

The hunter continued to rant about the unworthiness of Scorpius and as he did the air around them became more and more charged. The large dogs which were just growling and snapping were now cowering and sniveling. Not that the hunter was heeding attention to them. Lily watched in fascination as the aura around Scorpius changed from the light blue that it normally was to a very bright silver-ish color. She had only ever seen that color on one other person – or ghost – as the case may be.

With the air as charged as it was with magic, Lily made sure to stay as close to Scorpius as possible. There was a reason why the Potter girl avoided this place as much as possible, and it had everything to do with her own magic, or the lack thereof of her magic whenever she came here. 

Finally Scorpius had enough of the hunter’s dialogue, though why the hunter had not struck yet was anyone’s guess, and the Malfoy scion spoke over him in a deadly quiet voice. The charged air stood still, though it crackled with electricity. The dogs lowered their heads to the ground in submission, and the hunter’s mouth was stuck in a comical ‘O’ shape. 

Lily would have giggled if the situation wasn’t so very serious. The voice that came out of Scorpius was not his own, and shivers ran up and down the poor girl’s body. 

“As a Dreamwalker in this realm and the only true descendant of the Princess Rowena, I Scorpius Malfoy, stake my claim during this hunt to the mortal girl Lily Luna Potter.” 

Lily buried her head in the back of Scorpius’s shirt and groaned. ‘Oh Merlin, what have you done, Scor?’ she whispered into his back as the wind kicked up and the leaves started swirling around in a mad frenzy around the clearing.

“YOU CAN NOT INVOKE THAT RIGHT!! YOU DO NOT BELONG TO THIS WORLD!! YOU ARE NOT THE –“

Whatever else the hunter was about to bellow neither of the two heard, due to the high winds and the sudden whirling vortex of magic. The next thing Lily knew, she was lying flat on her back looking up at a grey, cloud filled sky. The ground she was lying on was cold and wet, but she knew without a shadow of a doubt that she was back at home, and she grinned happily with the knowledge.

Scorpius had done it! He had got them home and she would be forever grateful for that. Speaking of the Malfoy heir… She looked around her and found the blonde haired man groaning as he sat up gingerly. Lily could tell that he had not quite figured out where he was. 

He blearily looked around in confusion, his eyes finally settling on the Potter girl. “Lily,” he croaked. “I just had the strangest dream…” he trailed off as he took in where they were at.

“How…?” There was very real panic shown in his eyes when he looked back at her.

 

“You weren’t dreaming Scor. It was real. You – you’re…” her voice held a trace of sadness, or was it pity? Scorpius could not tell. He didn’t like either though. His denial was quick and firm.

“No,” he said shaking his head. “I was sleep walking or something. And you came out to get me and bring me back into the house.” He was doing his best to convince himself of this and Lily sitting there on the ground with her ankle at an odd angle was not helping him in the least. As a matter of fact….”Lily – why does your ankle look like it’s broken?” 

She glanced down at it and then back at him. She wondered about telling him the truth of it. ‘Would it break his already strained psyche? Would he be alright enough to deal with more evidence to where they were that night?’

She never got the chance to answer though. Cham came storming out the front door toward the two of them. She looked as if the hounds of hell were hot on her heels. She stopped abruptly in from of them, took one look at them both and said, “Awe HELL!”


	9. To Omit the Truth is still Deceit

**The Rarest Type of Seer**

  
_“I love those who can smile in the face of trouble, gather strength from their distress, and grow brave from their reflections…”_   
_~Leonardo da Vinci_

_ **Chapter 9** _   
**To Omit the Truth is Still Deceit**

  
“Where have you guys been? We’ve been worried sick about you! Everyone in the house has been searching for you and your father has been almost out of his mind with worry! What’s going on Lily?” Ginny Potter passed back and forth in front of her only daughter waving her hands dramatically as she paced. Lily had always considered her mother to be of a sensible nature, so she wasn’t entirely certain how to go about addressing the upset harridan that she was currently presented with.

She did feel slightly bad for scaring her parents but it wasn’t as if she had any real control over the situation. No. The one to blame was sitting on her left side, currently pondering how he was going to explain to the Potters that he had apparently whisked their daughter away to some other realm, claimed her as a prize in a hunt, and then miraculously brought her back. Oh yeah, and according to some nargles and some sort of shadow creature, he was a Dreamwalker. ‘How exactly was he supposed to maintain the Potter’s good opinion if the story that he told them, no matter how much truth there was to it, sounded insane even to himself?’

Lily tried to reassure him, but he was so lost in his thoughts, he was oblivious to Ginny’s angry diatribe. ‘Lucky him,’ was the uncharitable thought that crossed Lily’s mind even as she winced in pain at the headache that all of Scorpius’ unshielded thoughts were giving her.

“Well, Lily Luna? Are you going to answer me?” Lily brought herself back to the present circumstances. She and Scorpius were sitting on the couch in her father’s home office. Cham stood by the door with an imperceptible smirk on her face and Lily had to wonder if she was laughing at Lily’s present circumstances or something else entirely. You never could really tell with her.

“LILY!”

This sudden exclamation brought Lily completely out of her contemplations. It wasn’t like she was trying to ignore her mother, or maybe it was, it was just that so much had happened this past night, and her thoughts were everywhere. Her head hurt and her foot was in some new form of agonizing hell and all she wanted to do was sleep, or at the very least, get out of her mother’s presence.

She sighed, figuring that she would have to give her mother some form of an answer or else she would never be able to discuss what had happened with Cham. And she really needed to talk this out – because if anyone would know how to get out of a claiming it would be her best friend. Or so she hoped.

“We went for a walk, Mum. That’s all. Nothing happened and we’re perfectly safe,” she stated. She reached over and grabbed up Scorpius’ hand, breaking him out of his reverie. She unconsciously entwined their fingers together as she pulled his hand up into the air with hers, as if to say, “SEE! Perfectly fine!”

Ginny scoffed and significantly glanced at Lily’s foot that was currently using Scorpius’ lap as a resting place.

Lily felt Scorpius tense up and wanted to at least try to ease his mind. He really needed to stop thinking right now. It was surely hurting her more than it was him.

“I fell,” Lily deadpanned. There was a snort that came from the corner of the room and Scorpius turned to look at her incredulously. Her mother gave her a disbelieving look and flopped into the chair behind Harry’s desk.

“What?” She addressed the room at large. “I did fall. Besides, Mum. It’s just a little sprain. Cham’ll heal it up and I’ll be no worse off than I was when I fell asleep.”

Hoping that the interview was at an end, the dark haired girl grabbed her blonde companions hand and tried to pull him up with her as she stood to leave. But with the excruciating pain that was shooting up her leg from her ankle and the fact that Scorpius hadn’t been expecting the movement, Lily ended up falling precariously back onto the couch.

“Oooowwww!” Nobody was sure if it was a moan or a whimper that escaped her mouth, but her mother was back on her feet and standing in front of her daughter with a look of concern on her face. Cham had rushed over and Scorpius was hovering next to her. “I’m fine,” she gasped out. “Really, I am.”

“Clearly.” Ginny let out an exasperated breath. Leave it to Lily to tell them she was alright when it was perfectly clear that she was not. ‘Like father, like daughter,’ she thought not for the first time.

“I’m not sure where you thought you were going, but since you are clearly not ‘perfectly fine’, you can stay right there and tell me the truth about where you went.” She held up a hand to stall whatever it was Lily was about to interrupt with. “And don’t tell me you just went for a walk either. I know it’s not the truth.”

At Lily’s inquiring look, Cham jumped in, “the ward alarms went off when you guys came back onto the grounds. Everyone thought that one of your dad’s enemies might have found Potter Place and they were breaking in.” Steeling herself for what she was about to impart next, she continued, “what it boils down to Lils, is that the wards – the house – it didn’t recognize your magical signature, either of your signatures.”

Daunting silence followed this pronouncement and it was only broken by the entrance of Harry. His black hair was even more tangled and disheveled than usual. There was dirt on his face and his robes, which one could tell were thrown on in haste, were torn and scratched. His green eyes were weary with fatigue. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the two wayward teenagers sitting on the couch.

In that moment, Lily felt true shame for the first time in her life. She knew how much her father had on his shoulders and the worry that he often felt when it came to his family and those he considered his own. She also knew, without a doubt, that the only thing her father would ask them about was their welfare.

True to her thoughts, the first thing Harry asked was, “are you alright?” He gave them a piercing look that was reminiscent of his old headmaster making them both squirm under his intense gaze.

“I’m fine,” she answered with exasperation

“She sprained her ankle,” he said at the same time.

Silver grey and tired locked with deep green and furious for a moment that felt like eternity to the two of them.

Only the clearing of Harry’s throat broke their gaze. “Let’s see it then,” he said walking over to them. Lily shifted uncomfortably under her father’s penetrating gaze. She sent a glare at the Malfoy scion for adding more worry to her dad’s shoulders.

“I promise, Dad. I’m fine. I just fell and twisted it when we were ru – when we were coming home from our walk.”

Harry didn’t miss her slip, and he eyed her speculatively for a minute. “What were you running from?” He questioned her as he examined her foot.

“Nothing, Dad! Honestly!”

Knowing that he wasn’t going to get anywhere with his line of questioning, he gave it up for loss. “Alright Lily. I won’t ask anything else. You keep your secrets. But, I want your word that if you run into any type of trouble, you will come to me.”

All too excited that he was going to leave her alone, she gave her word immediately.

Her parents didn’t believe her for a minute. Cham raised snorted at her and even Scorpius raised an eyebrow in surprise.

Wary from the night’s search and frustrated with her daughter’s lack of answers, Ginny whipped out her wand more forcefully than necessary and quickly healed Lily’s ankle. Thus doing, she waved her hand at the door and ordered the three teenagers out of the office.

Scorpius and Cham preceded her out the door and just before she reached it, Lily turned back to her parents. “I’m sorry for causing so much trouble and worry. It really was just a walk,” she began.

“No more Lily! I know as well as you do that it was not ‘just a walk’. If you want to tell me the truth, then please do so. Otherwise don’t waste mine or your father’s time. Just go. We have to be at our grandparent’s home later today and your father needs to sleep before we go.” Ginny gestured once more toward the door and dared her daughter to say anything else.

The dark haired girl turned once more and just before she left she thanked the door for healing her ankle.

~SL~SL~SL~SL~

As the door shut behind Lily, Ginny lost all the fight that was in her petite frame. She sank into her husband’s plush chair behind his desk and covered her face with her hands. “Ugh!” She cried, dragging her hands down her face. “She’s just like you were at that age!” She shot Harry an accusing glare to which he shrugged his shoulders.

“Come on, Gin. It’s not all that bad. At least she has her mother’s intelligence and discriminating mind to temper the heedless recklessness that she inherited from her father,” he gave such a cheeky grin with this speech that Ginny couldn’t help but laugh. He always seemed to know what to say.

“Fine,” she said on an exhale, “I’ll let it be. We have to go get ready anyway, and I’m absolutely certain that you need to rest.”

~SL~SL~SL~SL~

Scorpius and Cham stood just outside Harry’s office waiting for Lily. There might have been an uncomfortable silence between them had Cham not been so lost in her thoughts and Scorpius paying more attention to his surroundings. As it was, when Lily came out of the office, almost in tears, Cham grabbed her best friend’s arm and practically dragged her up to her tower room.

Not really knowing what to do with himself, Scorpius trailed silently behind the two girls. Scorpius had never been to this room in Potter Place. The room was large and circular, as one would expect a tower to be. The walls were a cream color and there was blue carpeting on the floor. There were four large arched windows that allowed sunlight to steam through and each window had a window seat attached to it. In the center of the room up against the wall sat a large bed with blue and gold bedding and a canopy surrounding it. A comfortable looking chaise lounge was up against one side of the room. A fire started up on its own in the fireplace as they entered the room.

Despite the well-kept look about it, there were definite signs of Lily everywhere. Sketches laid about on the floor with open books nearby, and her scent was more prominent here than anywhere else in the house. He tried not to notice the pile of clothes, or the green lacy bra that sat atop it, that was sitting in front of what he could only assume was the restroom. Lily Potter may have a sentient room that catered to her whim and fancy, but this room was by far, much more personal.

As soon as he stepped over the threshold, the door slammed shut behind him and Cham turned on the two of them with a menacing glare. “Where did you go!?” She demanded. She held up her hand just as he started to answer. “And I don’t want to hear that lame ass excuse that you went for a walk. I’m not stupid and you,” she turned on Lily at that, “cannot fool me! So, come on then, out with it. The truth. Where did you go?” She glared at them.

Scorpius squirmed. It was bad enough when it was Ginny and Harry. He had no idea how scary Cham could be, though he did remember upon first meeting her that Albus said she could be a bit protective of Lily. He was at a loss for what to say though and he could only hope for Lily to help him out.

Sensing his unease and feeling the sudden onslaught of his thoughts, Lily sank down onto one of the window seats almost in a perfect mirror imitation of her mother earlier. “We did go on a walk, Cham,” she earnestly replied. “But it wasn’t planned, and it wasn’t – here,” her voice was decidedly weaker at the end of her response.

Furrowing her brow, Cham questioned, “if not here, then where? Lily, you have to understand. It’s not just the wards and the change in your magical signature that has us so worried.” Lily looked at her friend expectantly. “Chase was here.”

“Why?” Her question was hesitant and if he didn’t know any better, slightly scared. The Malfoy scion wanted to know who exactly Chase was and why his being here what agitate Lily so much.

“He said he was worried about you. He mentioned that there were some strange things going on in the –“ she gave a hesitant look at Scorpius before lowering her voice to a near whisper.

He couldn’t make out exactly what was said after that, but he could tell that Lily was not as amused as she was attempting to appear. He vaguely wondered if Cham was even bought into. Judging by the storm that was brewing in her blue eyes, the silver eyed teen doubted it.

The two girls whispered some more between them, every now and then glancing at hi. Scorpius was getting rather tired of them talking about him while he was still in the room. He knew that most girls liked to gossip about guys, but couldn’t they at least wait for him to leave the room?  
He was about to say something too. Lily’s raised voice stopped him completely in his tracks. “It doesn’t matter though, Cham! There has to be a way to stop the claim. Hell, he doesn’t even believe it happened!” Scorpius could feel her agitation and he watched as she began to pace her room all the while pulling her hand through her dark tresses.

Cham’s voice was smooth and quiet in her reply. “Then make him.”

“Yeah – I’ll just do that,” he was sure there was going to be more of her sarcastic retort but she took one look at him, glanced away and resumed her tireless pacing.

“Well, you have to do something, Lily. Tonight’s Christmas Eve and you already know what that means. Your entire family is going to be there and you know what kind of trouble she has planned. What kind of trouble that they have planned. And if what Chase says is true the ancient ones are stirring –“

“They’ve been stirring for a while now,” Lily dismissed. “I’m not overly worried about them.”

“Perhaps you should be, Lils.” There was a long silence after this calm reply. Lily had stopped her pacing and was gazing out at the morning sky. Scorpius wondered at her thoughts and the strange wariness that had overcome her countenance ever since the name Chase had come up.

Her almost black hair gleamed with red highlights in the sun. She was covered in dirt and scratches from head to toe, and Scorpius never thought he had ever seen anything so beautiful.

~SL~SL~SL~SL~

It was just a stray thought; that much she knew. They had so many more important things to be thinking about, but when she heard it in her mind, the first thing she did was to flush red with pleasure and then quickly with embarrassment. ‘WHY couldn’t he keep his friggin’ thoughts to himself?’  
She glanced at him quickly and taking in his oblivious stare, decided that the argument, the many arguments, just weren’t worth it right now. They were all tired, some more than others, if the rings around Scorpius’ eyes were any indication.

“We’ll deal with all of it later,” she declared to her friend. “At the moment we need to sleep.”

“What about -?”

“I’ll deal with the issues that Chase has brought to your attention. I promise I will. But it’s been a long night and I’m worn out. We need to be at our best tonight if she does her part in their plans.”

Chameleon sighed in resignation. “Fine. What about…?” She threw a significant look at Malfoy to which he glared back.

“I’m right here, you know,” he spoke for the first time since he entered the room.

“Yes, we know,” was the tart reply from the blonde girl. Lily stifled a giggle at the exchange and received two glowers in return. She responded with a shrug.

“What about Scorpius, Cham? It’s not like he doesn’t practically live here already. He can make himself a bed on the floor, go to Albus’ room, or make his way down to the parlor. I don’t really care.”

In some way, Scorpius was certain that he was supposed to feel offended. However, he just couldn’t find it in himself to do so. After all, did Lily Potter not just give him permission to sleep in her room – while she was still in there? He felt that he shouldn’t read too much into it though, as they did fall asleep together on the chair in her parlor.

Realizing that the two girls were still waiting for an answer, Scorpius sluggishly brought himself out of his tired thoughts. ‘Thanks, Lily. I appreciate it, but I think I’m going to head back to my apartment and sleep there. I’ll see you at your grandparents’ Christmas eve party, yeah?”

He wasn’t sure if she looked disappointed or if it was just his overactive imagination, but all thoughts were wiped out of his mind when she gave him a swift hug, so fleeting that he was almost certain it didn’t happen. She quietly told him to “sleep well” and then opened her door for him to leave.

He gave a mock salute to Cham and left the tower room, and he wasn’t sure, but probably part of his heart as well.


	10. Dubious Guests and Rumors too...

_“I've discovered that the less I say, the more rumors I start.”_

_~Bobby Clarke_  


** Chapter 10 **

** Dubious Guests and Rumors too… **

“But I don’t understand why Chase is _here_!” An exasperated Lily was never something to mess with.  But Cham couldn’t help herself, because an exasperated Lily was also a very amusing creature.  They were standing against the wall in the main living room of the Burrow.  A smattering of cousins and friends and siblings sitting on the many conjured furniture pieces.  They kept their voices low so that the others wouldn’t hear their conversation. 

Bryant Chase (known to one and all simply as Chase) being at the party was one thing that Lily just could not seem to get over and she had been pondering the reasons for it ever since she had seen him show up.

“I told you this morning why he was here,” was her reply.

Lily groaned.  “I know what you told me this morning, Cham,” she practically growled.  “I meant, why is he _here?_   At my grandparents’ home on the night of my family’s Christmas party less!”

“Ah.  Well, you see.  Apparently he ran into Rose and she invited him along to dinner.  It was very nice of her, if you think about it.  Him being so far away from home and all that,” she paused, hoping to catch any expression that might cross the youngest Potter’s face, but Lily remained stoic, and Cham saw nothing. She sighed.  “What are you thinking, Lily?”

“Nothing,” was the abrupt reply.  At her friend’s dubious look, Lily looked away and grudgingly began, “it’s just – don’t you think it’s a bit odd that Scorpius and I go for a midnight walk – “

Cham snorted and opened her mouth, but Lily quickly spoke over her, “and then the next day Chase shows up out of the blue.  But the next day isn’t just any day – oh no.  It just happens to be the day of my family’s Christmas party.  And _then_ he conveniently gets invited, by _Rose_ of all people.

“You’re being paranoid.  I highly doubt he’s a traitor, let alone _the_ traitor.”

“And what makes you so sure of that?  We were warned not to trust anyone, or did you forget?”

“I forget nothing, as you well know, Lily,” the blonde’s indignity at the slight was palpable and Lily might have felt slightly ashamed if it had not been for the next words that came from Cham’s mouth.  “He’s here because he was worried about your safety.  He knows as well I do what that place was like.  When he felt that something was wrong in that realm he came immediately to get you to safety.”

Lily didn’t reply for a long moment, her thoughts stuck on what Cham had just said. 

“Lils -?” She became worried when Lily turned to her with anger burning in her green eyes. 

“I was just wondering on the oddness of your statement,” was the thoughtful response.  “Why it is that Chase came halfway around the world to make sure I was alright,” she held up her hand to stop Cham from interrupting, “but my best friend, who has the same type of gift as he does and was, no doubt, much _much_ closer to where I was physically located, didn’t even realize or even feel the same ‘disturbance’, if you will, that he felt and therefore didn’t even worry about my safety until my father realized I was gone?”

‘ _Oh shit,_ ’ the thought went through Cham’s head so fast that there wasn’t any time to block it before it was out in the open for all those who could hear other people’s thoughts.

The hurt that she saw was worse than the anger, Cham decided.  At least she knew how to deal with an angry Lily. 

“I was busy,” she replied.  And she hoped that Lily would miss the brief glance that she sent across the room.

“Uh huh.  Okay.”

“No, seriously, Lily!  I really was!”

“Doing what then?  Because the way I see it, if you hadn’t been busy doing whatever I wouldn’t be in this predicament!  Isn’t that the entire reason you’re supposed to be with me whenever I ‘go off on my own’?” 

Cham felt as if she had been slapped.  “Right, because of course being your friend has nothing to do with it at all!  My job is to be your babysitter, right?” she snapped back. 

By this time their whispered conversation was becoming so heated, they were drawing the attention of the others in the room.

“That’s not what I meant and you well know it,” she lowered her voice to a whisper again, intense pain coloring her next words, “he had to _claim_ me just so we could get out of there, Cham!  Do you know what that _means_?  Do you truly understand?”

“Of course –“

“You don’t!” Lily cut her off vehemently.  “And he doesn’t even _believe_ that it actually happened!  So yeah, forgive me for being just a bit upset for you not being there!”  The last sentence was practically yelled and they now had the attention of everyone in the room.

Though she had seen Lily’s ire before, she had never actually been on the receiving end of it and she had no idea what to do.  She threw another glance across the room but the person she had been looking at before was gone.  She sighed.

“I’m sorry, Lily.”

“Right. Yeah,” she scoffed.

“Lily.  Are you alright?”  Both girls looked up to see Albus standing in front of them.

“Why do _you_ care?” she retorted scathingly.  The black haired boy flinched.

“That’s not fair, Lily,” Cham jumped to his defense.  She was so relieved to see that someone had jumped into the brewing argument, and even happier that it had been _him_ , that she forgot to shutter her response in front of her friend.

Albus gave Cham a warm smile and she replied in kind with Lily looking between the two.  An idea slowly formed in her head.  When it came to full fruition, she gasped, breaking whatever spell that had come over her brother and her currently former friend. 

“Right then.  That explains your ‘I was busy.’  Very cryptic that.  But that’s alright.  I get it, I really do.”  So many emotions flashed over her face in that second that both of the onlookers were caught off guard.  Hurt and anger, betrayal, fear, shame, sadness.  There were others too, just as fleeting over her face before she once again closed off.  “Congratulations,” she whispered before practically sprinting for the door.

Cham tried to grab Lily’s arm, “it’s not,” but she was gone quicker than the blonde could blink.

“You know –“ piped up another voice from beside them,  “Aunt Ginny always says Lily is just as broody as your dad was when he was that age.”

“Shut up Hugo.”  Albus punched his younger cousin in the arm, but he was grinning all the same.

“She’ll be alright though, yeah?” Cham asked.

“Oh yeah,” Chase said as he came up to them, “she’ll be just fine.  You know, overlooking the crazy ancients that are waking up, The _Lux Lucis Efrrego_ wanting to take her down, and of course a cousin that is intent on ruining her.  Yep, Lily will be just fine.”

“Who in Merlin’s name are you? And what on Earth are you talking about?” Albus demanded.

It was her turn to punch someone in the arm and she was not as gentle on Chase as Albus had been with Hugo. 

Chase at least had the decency to look contrite.  “What? I thought they knew” was his elegant reply to the stormy look on the blonde girl’s face.

“Obviously not.”

“Clearly.”

 

**_~SL~SL~SL~SL~_ **

 

Loud and boisterous was how he would explain the Weasley clan.  Of course that could also be due to the fact that there were so many of them.  Scorpius had been coming to the Weasley family Christmas Eve dinner since he was eleven and Albus had found out that the Malfoy’s didn’t do anything special.  It had become a tradition after that.  Scorpius would spend his Christmas Eve with the Potter’s and Weasley’s and his Christmas Day with his own family.  Even after his recent breakup with Rose, this year would be no different.

They were all unconsciously divided into their own little groups.  The men out playing muggle darts in Arthur Weasley’s shed, the women standing around the kitchen gossiping and hustling and bustling things out to the magically warmed seating area in the yard.  The cousins and all of their friends were also broken up into their own little groups talking about this and that or playing a pick-up game of quidditch out in the snowy glen. 

Usually, the Malfoy heir would hang out with Albus and Rose, and occasionally Fred.  But this year he didn’t really know where he fit in.  When he originally started dating the youngest Weasley girl, he didn’t think about the consequences of a break up or how those consequences would affect his relationship with her family.

He wandered through the house thinking about his dilemma and feeling as if all the Weasleys’ were looking down on him or thinking badly of him.  He had yet to run into her father, an encounter that he was not looking forward to.  Although, that particular encounter may not be near as uncomfortable as that morning’s was with Mr. Potter.

_After leaving Lily’s room, he had made his way back down to the main part of the house.  He was just passing Harry’s study when he heard the man himself call Scorpius back in.  The Malfoy scion entered the office with something akin to trepidation racing up and down his spine._

_He remembered his father once mentioning that Harry could be rather scary when he felt that something he loved was being threatened.  “I don’t mind you being friends with Albus, Scorpius,” his father had said with a rueful glance at his wife, “but do not get on his father’s bad side!”_

_It wasn’t that Scorpius had never heeded his father’s warning about such a thing, it was just that it had never occurred to him that he would ever need to._

_Harry gave nothing away with his expressions and Scorpius figured that Lily had a really good teacher in her father when it came to learning how to be expressionless.  Scorpius wished he still had the buffer that Mrs. Potter, Cham, and Lily had provided between himself and Harry earlier.  He was certain that the savior of the wizarding world would have frozen him solid for the rest of his life and made him into a statue to show to other young men that laid eyes on his daughter._ “This is what happens to young men that try to date Lily Potter,” _would be printed at the base.  The fleeting thought amused Scorpius more than it probably should have.  He wasn’t even trying to date her.  Yes, she was pretty.  She was also mysterious and enigmatic and a right pain in the arse, and he should probably tune into what Mr. Potter was saying._

_“…so whatever your intentions are, Malfoy, you need to be aware that if you hurt my daughter in any way…”  That had been all Scorpius could bare before he interrupted,_

_“It’s not what you think though.  We really did go for a walk.”  And he was so earnest in his response that Harry almost believed him.  But Scorpius could tell that there was still some misgivings in the older man’s expressions._

_The only response he was to receive was “hmmm” before he was sent away._

He shook those thoughts away.  _‘It’s Christmas, Malfoy – think happy thoughts… get in the spirit,_ ’ he said to himself.

 

He made his way into the living room of The Burrow and almost tripped over a wide eyed Lucy Weasley.  The buzz of conversation dimmed for a moment but rose back up when Roxanne Weasley started giggling at her cousin’s clumsiness.

“OI!  MALFOY!!  OVER HERE!”  Turning to the sound of the voice, he saw the Scamander twins with Molly and Dominique Weasley sitting on the floor of the living room in front of one of the couches.  Dominique looked as if she had just finished laughing at something one of them had said.  He had never really hung out with this group of the family.   These were Lily’s particular friends, he knew that much.  They were a bit on the eccentric side, and there always seemed to be laughter wherever they went.

As he made his way over to them, he looked to see if Lily was with them.  He hadn’t noticed her anywhere in the room or in his trek through the house and he was somewhat worried that she was not here. He decided not to think too hard on the ramifications of his concern.

“Looking for someone?”  One of the Scamander twins asked when he reached them.  He couldn’t tell which one it was though for he had never taken the time to get to know them.  Dominique let out a small giggle and eyed Scorpius with arch humor.  Molly just grinned at his obvious discomfort.

Scorpius eyed them warily before he answered.  “Not really.”  The dubious look he received from the four of them told him that they did not believe him at all.

There was an awkward tension that overtook the group for a moment before Molly piped up, “Soooo, Scorpius…,” She glanced at her companions with a sly smile and Scorpius just knew that he would not like what was coming.  “We were just talking about this interesting rumor that we overheard about you.  Would you mind telling us if there is any truth to it?  We would so hate to be misinformed.”

Not knowing or liking where this was going, he replied, “I will do what I can to ease your minds and set the rumors straight.”

One of the Scamander twins snorted, the other grinned wickedly and Dominique let out another giggle. 

Molly waved a hand at the sofa behind them and offered him a seat before she began.  “The whole house is a buzz with it,” she said without preamble.  “Apparently Rose is pregnant with your child and when you found out that she was, you broke it off with her.  And now you’re trying to get together with Lily.  Which by the way, if you are, well… Good luck with that.”

Scorpius paled at her words.  He was stunned at the revelation, though he figured it could be possible for Rose to be pregnant, there was no way that it could possibly be his child.  But then the rest of it was even more troubling because he had honestly know idea what to think about Lily.  He knew he was attracted to her.  He even liked her.  But he didn’t know her and she was just a tad bit on the weird side.  And then there was the whole ‘dream’ episode that they shared.  That dream was in a whole new world of weird. 

Before Scorpius could form a response a voice behind them said, “Molly.  You shouldn’t spread rumors, especially if there isn’t any truth to them.”

They all turned to see James standing there giving them a significant look.  “But James,” Molly whined in protest, “how are we to know the truth if we don’t seek it out?  That’s why we asked him.”

“Besides,” Dominique interceded, “there has to be some bit of truth to it.  Otherwise it wouldn’t hold any sway with the adults.  And,” she added devilishly, “they are all in a grand uproar over it!  Well, at least Uncle Ron is.”

Scorpius groaned.  There were looks of sympathy all around but they were over shadowed by the mirth that he could see in their eyes as well. 

“So.  Is it true?” Molly continued while eyeing him.

“I don’t know anything about any of it,” he replied.  “I would think that she would at least have the decency to mention such a thing to me if she was.”

One of the Scamander twins snorted in response, the other muttered, “yeah right.”  James rolled his eyes, and Molly laughed outright.

Dominique smiled softly though, and he felt as if he might have someone on his side.  Then she opened her mouth.  “You give her far more credit than she deserves, Scorpius.  Then again, she has always had you wrapped around her little finger, hasn’t she?”

Scorpius sputtered at her. “OI!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I don’t even know where I’m going with this anymore. I’ve been sitting on this chapter for a while. (Sorry ‘bout that). I still love you guys though, and I haven’t forgot you guys. I’m just going to keep going with this and hope it lives up to your expectations.


	11. Lessons in Stealing Thunder

** The Rarest Type of Seer **

_“Thunder is good. Thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does the work.”_

_~Mark Twain_

 

** Chapter 11 **

** Lessons in Stealing Thunder **

 

After his conversation with the “Hellion Squad”, as he had deemed them not-so-affectionately in his mind, (no wonder Lily got along so well with all of them), he chose to go and sit (read: hide) with Albus and Cham.  They were lost in their own world and didn’t seem to notice him at all.  That was fine though.  He had a lot to think about.  This whole business with Rose was a bit screwy. What was she playing at?  There was no way she could possibly pregnant with his child!  They would have had to have been intimate for something like that to happen.  They had never got that far in their relationship, and by the time that he thought they were ready for that, he had caught her in bed with someone else.  The problem was that it was her word against his and she was playing it up.  He couldn’t figure out for the life of him why she would do this.

 

“You all right there, mate?”  Scorpius turned at the new voice.  Apparently while he was musing away at Rose’s indiscretions and stupidity, Cham and Albus had moved away to visit with some other people and someone else had decided to sit down next to him; someone that Scorpius had never seen before.  Scorpius wasn’t one to immediately trust new people and especially people that he was sure was trying to put on an act.  The newcomer had brown hair and eyes.  Scorpius assumed that the man would probably be a few inches shorter than himself when they were both standing. 

 

The man tilted his head at Scorpius and smiled, though it did not quite reach his eyes.  Realizing that he had been asked a question, Scorpius sputtered. “What? Oh yes. I’m fine. Just have a lot on my mind.”

 

“Must be pretty pressing for you.”

 

Scorpius raised a questioning eyebrow.

 

For the first time the other man seemed a little flustered but answered the silent query, “It’s just that there are all of these people and festivities going on, and here you are sitting off by yourself in a corner, seemingly avoiding everyone.”

 

Scorpius shook his head, but before he could even think of a reply, he heard Lily say from behind him, “honestly Chase.  Get lost.”  Then she walked around the couch and plopped down next to Scorpius on his other side.  She inched as close as she could without actually touching him.  He could feel his face warming up and just for a moment he despised what this little imp of a girl could do to him just by sitting down on the same sofa as he.

 

“Seriously though, _Bryant,_ nobody really even wants you here.”

 

“Nobody being you, _Potter_?” The man practically sneered at her.

 

Lily shrugged, completely un-phased by the nastiness of her verbal sparring partner.  “See, that’s the thing.  The only people here who know who you are, are me and Cham.  Everyone else just thinks you’re someone else’s guest, but nobody really knows who brought you.  But I do, and she doesn’t count, so, once again, get lost!” 

 

“Lily Luna! Don’t be rude!” Ginny said from behind them. 

 

Lily cringed.  The man that Scorpius now knew as Chase smirked; Scorpius could have sworn that he heard Lily mutter a curse under her breath.  However, when her mother asked what she said, she merely mumbled “nothing” and glowered at Chase. 

 

Feeling like he had been placed in an awkward position, Scorpius went to move away from the two arguing over him.  (He just wanted a moment away from all of the insanity that this family wrought).  But Lily grabbed his hand and gave him an imploring look and he was somewhat lost.  He huffed out a breath and remained where he was, but maybe the small grin on Lily’s face was worth it.  Maybe.

 

“Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?” The annoyance at Scorpius’ other side questioned.

 

“Nah,” was the instant reply.  “Why waste my breath on the likes of someone like you.  Besides, Scorpius is pretty smart.  I’m pretty sure that he has already picked up the key factors of who you are.”

 

The blonde preened inwardly at her praise.

 

“What do you mean ‘key factors’, Potter?”

 

And then the preening ended.  Didn’t they know when to stop.  They were giving him a headache.  It was like watching a tennis match.  One that never ended, with him stuck in the middle.

 

“I _mean_ that he knows your name.  He knows that you are an annoying are…” She glanced back to see if her mother was still within hearing range before continuing, “arsehole,” she lowered her voice to just above a whisper.  Scorpius had to hide a grin at her apparent fear of the older Potter woman.  “And he knows that you shouldn’t be here!” She finished with a dramatic flourish of her unoccupied hand. 

 

She tightened her grip on Scorpius’ hand and pulled him up with her, never giving Chase a chance to reply.  “Let’s go,” she said in an overly chipper voice.  “We’re about to be called to dinner.”

 

He had no idea how she knew that, but sure enough, the dinner bell that Mr. Weasley had had installed for get-togethers like this went off just shortly after they started walking to the door.

 

**_~SL~SL~SL~SL~_ **

****

They were all gathered around the tables that had been set up under magically enlarged and warmed tents in the back garden. Molly Weasley had really outdone herself this year with the food and decorations.  Oh, he knew that the rest of them chipped in to help with everything, but he also knew that the matriarch of the family was not only a force to be reckoned with, but also the one who was truly in charge.  He also knew that she was probably the reason that he was sitting between Rose and Albus, and across from Lily and the Scamander twins.

 

This did not bode well.

 

When he first saw the seating arrangements he wondered why in Merlin’s name the good matriarch would put Lily anywhere but near her best friend.  But then he saw that said best friend was sitting next to his best friend and things became a little clearer.  Still.  He didn’t want to be next to Rose and he didn’t want to be amused by the way that the twins were flicking Lily’s hair back and forth between them.  (She was doing a fine job of ignoring them, or at least pretending to ignore them).  Her eyes were dancing with laughter when she glanced up at him. 

 

Chase was sitting on the other side of Rose.  She was flirting madly with him and Scorpius wondered mildly if she had found herself a new conquest.  It would go a long way in helping clear away these rumors.  He was aware that he may appear to be brooding and jealous but he couldn’t help appearances right now.  He was rather upset with the idea of these rumors floating around.  Already he had come face to face with an irate Ronald Weasley.  It was lucky for him that Mr. Potter was also there.  And while he couldn’t decipher the black haired man’s thoughts, he was certain that the auror was anything but angry with him.  Mr. Weasley however…  Well.  There was nothing he could do for it now.  He was, however, rather upset at losing the esteem of this wonderful family.  

 

He felt a light kick to his foot and looked up into the bright eyes of Lily.  She gave him an impish grin that seemed to be reassuring in a strange sense, and then turned back to the twin on her right, who it was going on about some explosion or another.

 

Something strange happened though.  Her eyes glazed over and her spine stiffened.  She seemed to stare off into the distance for a moment.  The twins’ laughter trailed off and there was a momentary silence around their little area of the table.  He felt Albus and Rose stiffen next to him at the same time.  He remembered something like this happening back at the Potters’ home the first night she was home. 

 

“Teddy and Victoire are going to make an announcement soon,” she murmured. And just as suddenly as it began, her gaze cleared and she grinned broadly.  “I’m so excited for them!”  Then she looked at Rose and glared.  “Don’t ruin their moment!”

 

Rose huffed but was unable to answer.  Teddy had stood up just then and asked for everyone’s attention.  He seemed a little nervous as he glanced around the room.  But then he focused on Victoire and grabbed her hand and they were suddenly both beaming at each other.  It was such an intimate moment but nobody seemed to mind.  Everyone in the room was smiling at the two of them.

 

“Well, go on then, Teddy! Tell us what’s got you up there!”  Someone yelled. 

 

Teddy cleared his throat.  “Right. Yes.  So, Victoire and I wanted to tell you all that we are expecting our first child next summer!”

 

There was much applause and congratulations and _crying_ , _(why was there_ crying _!?)_ after this pronouncement.  Men stood and clapped Teddy on the back, while women went and hugged Victoire.  Many of the people that were sitting at Scorpius’ table stayed where they were though, and that didn’t really surprise him, as there were too many people were swarming the happy couple.

 

He was happy for his cousin and his future.  Certainly.  Teddy was one of the best people that he knew.  At the same time, he couldn’t help but feel as if something was off.  Not necessarily with the announcement, but with something else.  There was a foreboding tension in the air that was surrounding him, and he knew he wasn’t the only one who could feel it.  The Scamander twins eyes didn’t seem as joyful as they were moments before, Albus had shuddered as if a cold chill had gone up his spine, though it was rather warm in the tent, and Lily’s lips were pursed in an angry pout.

 

He felt something flare to life in his mind as he was taking all of this in.  There was some new thread that was being formed, something familiar but still distant all at once. 

 

As the chatter died down and people began returning to their seats, Rose stood and drew their attention to her.

 

“Oh Merlin. No.”  Cham muttered from the other side of Albus.

 

“I’m so happy for you both!” She simpered at them.  Teddy’s eyebrows raised and Victoire’s face was set in confusion at how her younger cousin was acting.  Rose continued.  “You guys have been trying so hard and it’s just so exciting!”

 

Teddy found his voice and though looking incredibly bewildered he attempted to thank her for her courtesy.  But Rose had other ideas and trampled right over him.

 

“In light of this joyous news, I thought that it would be a good time to also share mine and Scorpius’ happy news!  We’re going to have a baby too!”  Her overly cheerful voice reverberated throughout the now silent room.  There were no congratulations.  No happy exclamations.  None of the men clapped him on the back – not that he wanted them to – and none of the women came over to hug Rose.  Also not what he wanted to happen. 

 

Everyone was staring though.  At him, and also her, but he felt like it was mostly himself.  And he was floundering.  He was lost in a sea with no anchor.  Nothing holding him in place.  He figured this was what a panic attack must feel like, though he couldn’t be sure.  He had only ever heard of them before.  The only thoughts going through his mind were of how she could possibly do this when there was no truth to it, and more importantly: _why?_  

 

He looked around to see if he had any support; Albus had nothing but disappointment on his face (thanks for believing in me, Mate.)  There was nothing to be found but pity on Cham’s.  The hellion squad looked ready to murder, though _who_ they wanted to kill, he couldn’t say for sure.  He couldn’t bear to look at Lily.  Her estimation of him had come to mean a lot in the short amount of time that they had known each other.  The idea of her disappointment in him made him cringe, even when he knew how untrue Rose’s claims were. 

 

It was Ron though that made him beyond weary of the situation that he found himself in.  Rose’s father was furious.  Even more so than when Scorpius had come across the man and Mr. Otter earlier.  Ron’s face was a shade of purple that Scorpius was sure could only be found on blueberries, and he would swear until his dying day that there was actual steam coming out of the man’s nose and ears.  (And the blonde was certain it wasn’t a WWW product).

 

“Err.  Right. Well.  That’s a um…lovely thought, Rose.  And well, congratulations on being pregnant. But, yeah.  It’s not mine.”  And then he bolted out of the tent as fast as he could.

 

**_~SL~SL~SL~SL~_ **

 

Lily and Cham stood at the same time, murderous expressions on their faces.  Lily had known Rose was going to try something stupid tonight.  And with Chase here, it made it that much worse.  They didn’t need any outsiders working on this with them.  And Lily had no trust for him.  He was a worm. 

 

**_~SL~SL~SL~SL~_ **

****

Rose cringed a bit from the pure anger on her cousin’s face, but she straightened her spine and held her head high, meeting Lily’s piercing glare head on.  She would not fail in this.  Lily and her friend would not stop what was to happen.  She, Rose, would for once be victorious over her cousin. 

 

To Rose’s immense consternation, once again, Lily did the opposite of what was expected of her.  The glare melted from Lily’s face and she grinned.  Then she turned to her uncle.  “Things aren’t always what they seem, Uncle Ron.  And those we love most,” she looked back at Rose for a moment, “can sometimes turn out to be backstabbing liars.”

 

Her exit wasn’t near as dramatic as Scorpius’ flight, but her parting words did what she had meant them to do, and the people that the words were meant for were left with much to think about.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Obligatory Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the other awesome things you may recognize in this spiffylicious story.


	12. How to Save a Life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am dedicating this chapter to all of my lovely readers. You guys rock the world! And also to the Daughter who feels that it is “absolutely necessary” to turn 10 on Monday. (I did not authorize such nonsense!) Here, lovelies, have a quicker update! (Well, quick for me anyway).

The Rarest Type of Seer  
“Mom, why is it so beautiful, but so deadly at the same time?”  
~Life questions from Ginger

 

Chapter 12  
How to Save a Life

It was a veritable snowy wonderland. And it was cold. How, he wondered, did he not realize how cold it was out here? He had been walking the extensive grounds of the Weasley’s property for the better part of fifteen minutes and the cold had gradually crept in over him. He had to wonder how it was that he hadn’t felt it when he made his rather impressive (Albus’ voice in his head countered with dramatic) exit.

Different thoughts flitted through his mind. Everything from ‘what is Rose playing at?! No. No. Don’t think about that!’ To ‘how does Lily do that?!’ To ‘Wow! The Weasley’s have a lot of land to explore! I wonder if Father ever realized how wrong he was about these people?’ To ‘Wow. It is really cold out here!’ His thoughts went in circles, over and over, but they were more like a background hum instead of a constant stream. In a way, it was nice to be away from all of the hustle and loud of the Weasley clan and their extended family. Even if he was considered a part of that extended family.

He was so deep in his mind that he didn’t hear someone calling out to him in warning, nor did he notice the brook with the thin sheet of ice over it that he was about to step foot on. And then he heard the cracking and everything slowed down and blurred. He could feel himself falling into the murkiness of the icy water, the darkness rising up to surround him, the coldness enveloping him in a freezing hug. His thoughts, as muddled as they were to begin with, became even more so, and he knew without a doubt that he was fast losing consciousness, but just before he did, he felt himself being pulled, as if he had been summoned. That couldn’t be right though, could it? A summoning spell only worked on inanimate objects, not people. And that was his last conscious thought.

~SL~SL~SL~SL~

(“Scorpius.” Someone was whispering in his ear.)

“It’s a good job we were there, yeah?”

“I didn’t know the summoning spell worked on humans.”

The voices that washed over him were indistinguishable at best, but they were definitely not whispers.

“I don’t think anyone knew mate…”

“Why d’ya think he was so close – “

“Look! He’s shivering! And he’s BLUE! Where is his coat?”

(“Scorpius…” Or maybe it wasn’t his ear…)

He knew those voices. Lily’s friends.

“Really, s’bit stupid, don’t ya think?”

“Shut up Lys.”

“Bloody hell! Why haven’t you guys at least used a warming charm!?

(“Ah. Albus. It’s always lovely when you join the party”)

“It’s too far to the house.”

“Well we have to get him out of the cold!”

“Oh! I know somewhere we can go!”

(“Dominique, Scorpius. Always the most level headed. Don’t ever forget that. It could save your life.”)

What the hell? Was someone talking to him? In his mind?

He had the distinct impression of a grinning face.

“I don’t think that would be wise Dom. She may not like us invading her space.”

(“That would be Molly. She’s such a clever little duck. But really, I don’t mind. You should probably let them know that you’re coming around though. They are getting a bit worried. And Albus is never fun to deal with when he’s upset.”)

Scorpius groaned as he felt someone try to lift him up.

“Oh good! He’s coming around. Even if only a little! That’s a good sign, Albus!”

The overly excited vice of Cham broke through some of the fog in his mind. He opened his eyes just enough to realize that it was one of the Scamander twins that had him. He wanted to protest. He wanted to wrap himself up in all of his Malfoy dignity and pride and tell the damn twin to put him down. 

As if reading the blonde’s thoughts, Lysander said with a tone of amusement, “I would put you down, Mate. Except I’m pretty sure you would just fall on your head and end up colder than what you are already. Let’s not tempt fate – or Albus’ wrath. He can be scary.” He said the last bit as if it were a secret, only he made sure that everyone could hear him.

“This is not funny!” Albus snapped proving Lysander’s point. “He could have died, what with how you guys were screwing around and not realizing what was going on!”

Molly put a comforting hand on her cousin’s shoulder. “But we did realize. And we got him out and he’s fine.” Her voice was soothing, much like what Scorpius thought the Weasley matriarch’s voice would be like when tending to a sick family member.

But Albus was having none of it. He roughly shrugged her hand away and stalked off in front of the group.

“He’ll be fine,” Dominique’s voice said from beside him. “Besides. How long do you think it will take him to realize he has no idea where we are going?”

“Neither do we,” Lysander threw in.

Lorcan snorted from the other side, and Cham giggled. Molly gave a wan smile. 

“That is, of course, if she’ll even let us find her,” said the latter.

“Oh. She will.” Cham was very sure of herself when she spoke, and everyone gave her dubious looks. She huffed out a breath at them. “She already knows about the situation and she’ll help in any way that she can.”

They all looked skeptical at her and she glared in response. “It’s not like you guys don’t know how this works. She probably knew all about it the second he stormed out of the tent. That’s probably why she left so quickly after.”

“If she knew what was going to happen to him, then why let him do it in the first place?” Molly asked.

Cham shrugged. “Some things have to happen. Whether we want them to or not. It’s the way it is. She doesn’t like it any more than you do. Especially in regards to him.”

The group fell into silence and continued their trek through the winter woods. Scorpius clung to consciousness by threads and begged all the deities that he didn’t believe in for warmth. The others kept a steady stream of warming charms on him and that calming voice in his head kept talking to him and making him stay awake. He wanted to swat that voice away as if it were a fly.

He got a distinct feeling of amusement from the other consciousness that was invading his mind. He hated that.

Albus had rejoined them after a couple of minutes of sulking. “I don’t know where we’re going,” was his mumbled response to his smirking cousins and friends.

They seemed to be walking in a general straight forward direction, following the little brook that Scorpius had inadvertently tried to go swimming in. After another ten minutes of walking they found themselves in a clearing that could only be described as a fairy glen. 

Snow covered logs and branches were scattered about everywhere. Winter wild flowers grew randomly between the trees. The few birds that hadn’t flown away for the season were heard up in the trees. In the middle of it all was the most fantastic tree that they had ever seen.

There was a collective breath amongst the group.

“Wow,” breathed Cham. “Ginny’s tree.”

“What?” Albus asked.

“It’s Ginny’s tree. Lily only ever told me about it once. She said it was her mum’s hideaway when she was small. She gifted it to Lily one afternoon when things got rough with Rose and…” Cham trailed off and gave a small shrug to Albus. He knew what she meant. They all did. 

“You know,” Lysander spoke up breaking the tension, “As many times as I’ve been out here - ”

Lorcan snorted and hid a grin. Molly and Dominique giggled.

“And it has been plenty,” he continued. “I have never seen this place. At. All. Ever.”

“That’s because I didn’t want it to be found.” The voice that had been whispering in his mind became a reality and Scorpius finally succumbed to sleep.

~SL~SL~SL~SL~

It was an old oak tree that housed Ginny Potter neé Weasley’s greatest childhood secret. The tree itself had to be at least two centuries. It was encased with charms that kept it hidden from the common wizard’s eye. Nothing so strong as a secret keeper needed to be kept, but nothing so flimsy as a disillusionment charm. Some of the charms were so old that witches and wizards of today wouldn’t even know how to use them correctly. 

It had been a particularly bad day for Lily. She didn’t want to be home for the summer, and Rose was making it rather well known what her feelings on the matter was. Albus wasn’t making anything known. Whatever Rose said, it was assumed that Albus agreed. 

Lily didn’t remember exactly what was said that caused her outburst on that fine summer day. (If one can call quietly hexing your brother an outburst.) She was certain though that Rose had referred to Lily’s freakishness. Again. Probably. And she, Lily had finally had enough. Again. (This was, after all, an ongoing thing for the three of them.) There was a snarky retort from Lily, to which Albus most likely replied, and Lily hexed him. But this time Lily’s hex actually held some spite to it and she had almost broke her brother’s arm. 

There was a lot of overdramatic screaming from Rose, and the whole lot of the family came bursting into the family room that the three of them were occupying. Rose continued ranting about Lily, Albus was trying valiantly to not show tears in front of his family, but it HURT! And Lily was silently crying. She never meant to hurt her brother. But why did they have to be so mean all the time?

Ginny was the first to notice her daughter’s distress and before anyone could say a word to her, rushed the scared child out of the room. The older red head took her daughter out into the woods that day and showed her the best hidden secret of her childhood. 

“None of the others know about this place,” she whispered, as if trying to not disturb the wild magic that surrounded the area. “Well,” she corrected herself, “I take it back. Your grandfather knows. Your father too, but he won’t say anything about it. Your grandfather is the one that showed it to me, but nobody else knows, and none of them will, unless you tell them how to get to it. And the best part of it all, is that even if you show them how to get here, and even let them in, the only way that they will ever find it again is if you magically key their signature into it.”

Her mother performed some ritual that was ancient and beautiful and made Lily feel as if she was actually one with nature and a part of the grand scheme of everything. She was a part of the brook that quietly babbled in the distance, the scent of the wild flowers became her very essence and the thoughts of the oldest tree in the area became her very own. Her mother swore that she had never seen the ritual take to another human in the way that it took to her daughter. Then again, her mother had only ever seen it done twice before. Still. It was something worth pondering. Later.

The old oak tree became her place of hiding when the people in her family became too stupid (in her opinion) to be around. She loved Lysander, Lorcan, Dominique, Molly, and James to pieces. They could be a lot to handle at the best of times. And some times (more often than not) they were just too much. It was the place that she (unashamedly) hid from Rose, Albus, and Hugo when it was just the four of them at their grandparent’s house.

It was where all of her dreams and ideas were thought on. It was where she secretly mooned over one, Scorpius Malfoy. It was where she allowed her emotions to come freely to the forefront. She had many canvas paintings there, a whole library of ancient texts and books and novels. 

The entrance was a large squirrel’s hole. Lily fit into it perfectly. She supposed that she would have to enlarge it so the larger ones of this crowd could fit through it. 

The inside of the tree, like so many other things within the wizarding world, was much different than what one might think. It was divided into multiple rooms with a main hallway connecting them. There was a small kitchen with a just as small stove and refrigerator. There was a menagerie where animals that wanted to find warmth in the winter months, but didn’t want to leave, had made themselves at home. There was a room that had summer flowers growing in them, and there were multiple guest rooms and bathrooms. 

It was a wonder that Lily ever left here. 

Most importantly though, it was warm.

~SL~SL~SL~SL~

“Put him in there. It’s the warmest room here.” Lily pointed to one of the rooms on the left side of the hallway. The bed was a queen with pillows all over it. The blankets and quilts were in blues and silvers and the walls of the room were painted in a quiet blue. Silver streaks were painted randomly all over the walls, and there was a fluffy light silver and white rug on the floor in front of the bed. The bed curtains were in the same shade of blue and silver as the walls.

“You’ll have to get him out of those wet clothes before you actually put him in the bed.” Albus eyebrows shot to the roof of his head at Lily’s quiet pronouncement.

“What? The girls and I can leave the room while you guys help him get into the bed. It’s the only way to really warm him up. Don’t be such a prude, Albus.” She left them to it and dragged Cham and her cousins to wait in the hallway.

“Do you think he’ll be ok?” Molly asked. She was the closest to Lily in their little group and the one that worried the most about her. She was able to keep a level head during all of the excitement, but once everyone was relatively safe, all of her worries kicked in. The biggest one being that Scorpius would be okay. Even if no one else realized it, Molly just knew that he had to be okay for Lily’s sake.

“He’ll be fine,” Dominique answered with a wave of her hand, as if it was nothing that they found the blonde Malfoy freezing outside in a stream.

“He was blue, Dom! How can you be so… so… calm about it?” 

Dominique shrugged. “He was a bit conscious when we found him, so that tells me that he will be all right. She looked over at Lily and Molly followed her gaze. 

Lily was pacing through the hallway with a deep look of concentration on her face. Cham leaned against the wall across from them, her arms were crossed over her chest as she watched her friend. “He’ll be all right.” The blonde said it so quietly that it almost went unheard. 

Molly and Dominique were not sure if she were only talking to Lily or encompassing all of them in her quiet platitude, but it was Lily who answered.

Unconsciously mirroring her cousin’s waved hand, she said, “Oh. I have no doubt that he’ll be just fine. I’ve already seen to that.”

Cham snorted, and with strained amusement replied, “of course you have.”

They fell back into that uncomfortable silence for another moment. Lily continued to pace.

It was Dominique who surprisingly broke the silence again. “Lily, please stop pacing! If you have already seen to his well-being – how have you already seen to his well-being?” She added as an aside. “Then what is wrong? Why are you so agitated?”

Lily did stop. Rather abruptly in Molly’s opinion, and then she turned and stared at Dominique. She had seen Lily do it before, stare at someone as if they were looking through their very soul. (Usually at Rose, and probably more often than not, Molly thought with some misplaced amusement, for the sole purpose of making Rose uncomfortable). But this was different. Lily had never turned this stare on any of her closest friends before. 

“Lily… What?” Dominque sounded just as confused as Molly felt, and maybe even a slight bit scared. 

“Rose.” It was a statement wrapped in a strangled whisper. Lily’s blonde friend stood up straighter at the name. Her brow was creased in thought.

“What about her?” Molly asked. Lily didn’t answer right away, just went back to pacing a bit. Molly looked to the girl across from her hoping that she might be able to give some answer, but none was forthcoming.

“Rose is an idiot,” Dominique stated. 

The blonde sighed. “Yes. But she’s a smart idiot. One that –“

“She’s not that smart!” Lily cut in. “She’s had some help! We need to find out ‘who’ and ‘how’!”

“You already know the ‘who’, Lils,” Cham said sadly. “I think you have probably always known the ‘who.’

“No.” Lily shook her head. “We need to know exactly ‘who’. All we know is the collective ‘who’.”

Lily, stopped her pacing momentarily and suddenly looked up from her contemplation of the floor. “The boys are done getting Scorpius settled. Let’s go.”

She swept from the hallway back into Scorpius’ temporary room, leaving her cousins and friend to follow in her wake once again.

~SL~SL~SL~SL~

“I’m so hungry,” someone groaned nearby. “Why is there no food? We could at least have tea!”

His head felt foggy and there was a drumming staccato pounding through it. His eyes were heavy and his limbs felt like lead weights attached to his body. 

“Ugh. Lily. Don’t you have something in this place that will shut him up?” There was an angry bite to Albus’ voice. Scorpius wondered briefly what brought that on.

There was a sigh and a rustle. Some whispering and whooshing and then some happy grumbling noises from the first voice. “You are an amazing witch, Lily-kins!” Scorpius would have wrinkled his face in disgust if he wasn’t in so much pain.

“When’s he gonna wake up? He’s been asleep forever!” That one, he thought, maybe, was Dominique. “And what about everyone else, Lils? Don’t you think they will be worried about where we all are?”

“Nah. I’ve sent a message. Mr. Potter will make sure they know we’re safe.” Female voice. Only female here not related to Mr. Potter, or so he assumed, therefore must be Cham.

Someone huffed. “Fine. But that still doesn’t say anything about when he’s gonna wake up!” Ah. Still Dominique then.

He noticed that he still hadn’t heard Lily’s voice, though he was aware of her presence due to her being addressed by the others. However, her quiet cadence was conspicuously missed. 

The sounds of Lily’s cousins and friends wafted around him in a semi-annoying buzz. He needed quiet. His head was starting to pound more. He remembered a presence that had been there with him as he drifted off to unconsciousness. It had helped calm him, eased his mind, made the cold go away. But now that presence was non-existent, and he wondered duly if it had been merely a dream.

“Seriously though, we’ve been here all night, Lils,” another voice said. “You’re a wreck and We don’t have any clothes other than what we were wearing yesterday!”

“There are other things to worry about than the clothes on your back,” said the voice he had decided was Cham. “Besides, if you’re really worried about it, there should be clothes that will fit you in the rooms you slept in last night. Or,” she added as an afterthought, “You could just leave.” There was an edge to her voice in her last sentence, but it seemed from all of the spluttering and arguing going on around him, no one was going to take her up on the last option.

“Quiet. All of you.” Her voice was a balm to his pounding head, soft and low, and surprisingly calming to him. “He is awake, Albus. He has been awake for the better part of thirty minutes, and he is wishing all of you to silence.”

(One of these days he was going to figure out how she knew stuff like that. Not right now though. Right now he was going to open his eyes. Maybe.) 

There was a breath of silence in the room at her pronouncement. Not a word was spoken. Then in a harsh whisper Albus said, “How do you know, Lily?” Her name was pronounced scathingly and left no room for doubt that he somehow blamed her for whatever mess they were in. 

There was a collective breathy gasp of “Albus!” from pretty much everyone but Lily.

After a moment, he heard Lily sigh and say in that same quiet voice, “it’s fine.”

“But, it’s really not,” Dominique started.

“We have other things to worry about,” the Potter girl practically snapped out. The room was far too tense and quiet for a few minutes after that. He wanted to find a way to break it, but he wasn’t sure how to go about it. If only he could open his damn eyes.

“Well, then,” Albus bit out, “Why don’t you enlighten us on everything?”

“I will. Just not –“

Scorpius took that moment to finally attempt to get his eyes open. He groaned lowly at how heavy his lids felt and the pain that came with trying to force them open. He took in his surroundings in a glance. The blues and silvers on the walls were almost as refreshing to his pounding head as Lily’s calm voice when she spoke. Albus, Cham, and Molly were standing on one side of his bed, while Lysander and Dominique were on the other side. Lorcan stood more to the end of the bed, but on the same side as his twin. 

A frission of panic went through him when he didn’t immediately see her, but he squashed it down as best as he could. He had, after all, just heard her. So she had to be there somewhere. Then he saw a slight movement behind Lorcan and he saw her leaning against the wall as nonchalantly as ever. But she looked like the wreck she was accused by her friend earlier. Her eyes had bags under them, her makeup from the day before was smeared and unwashed from her face, and her hair was a tumbled everywhere as if she had just come in from a rather harrowing quidditch game. 

She was gorgeous.

Her eyes locked with his in that moment and everything else faded away. She was assessing him, looking at him everywhere, though how she could without breaking eye contact was a strange sensation. He didn’t know how long they stared at each other. It could have been seconds or hours, but then the presence in his mind flared to life and the voice from the day before said succinctly, “Good. You’re truly all right.” Then Lily nodded at him once and broke the eye contact.

“I’ll leave you to it, Albus,” she glanced briefly at her brother and then left the room. 

Another tense silence followed as everyone else processed what just happened. Then, with some emphasis, Lorcan said, “Good Grief! She can be so dramatic!”

Cham sighed. “She’s not being overdramatic. She’s a bit overwhelmed right now.” She looked at Scorpius asking him some silent question that he had no idea how to answer and coming to a conclusion that Scorpius was unsure that he would ever figure out or understand. “Right, then. I’ll go talk to her.” She started to leave, but then turned back to the room with a bit of hesitance. “Albus, you and the twins keep Scorpius company. Molly and Dominique, go see about rustling up some real food and tea. Not whatever it is Lily pulled from thin air.” At everyone’s agreement, she quit the room in search of her wayward friend, leaving behind a very confused Scorpius.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, thank you all for reading, reviewing, favoriting, and following! You guys are all wonderful and make me want to muddle through the strange mess of this story. Second, I do realize that this seems like another filler chapter, but there is a method to their madness, (I hope). I really just follow where the characters tell me to go.


	13. No Matter Who You Trust

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to thank all of you for your amazing patience!

** The Rarest Type of Seer **

_“Smiling faces sometimes pretend to be your friend / Smiling faces show no traces of the evil that lurks within  
Smiling faces, smiling faces sometimes / They don’t tell the truth”_

_~Undisputed Truth_

**__ **

** Chapter 13 **

** No Matter Who You Trust… **

Lily walked for hours, contemplating her life’s choices (and the choices made for her when she was a baby) and where they had brought her.  She couldn’t say she wasn’t expecting the bond between herself and Scorpius, she had seen it in a vision years before, but that didn’t mean she liked it.

 

She came to an abrupt halt at the edge of her grandparents’ property.  The brook that Scorpius had fallen in the evening before, curved around this part, and flowed between her and the house.  From where she stood she could see the back of the dinner tents and a group of people standing with their heads huddled together.  She was certain that one of those people was Thomas McLaggen.  _‘What in the bloody hell is he doing here?’_  She cast a disillusionment charm on herself, and moved stealthily to them, making sure not to let her magical signature get away from her.

 

She skirted trees, jumped over rocks, and slinked over the small bridge.  The field was more open here, and she sprinted from where she stood behind a tree over to the side of the tent, close enough to hear the conversation, but still hidden by the corner. 

 

She was not surprised to have her assumption confirmed.  Thomas McLaggen was definitely among the group.  So was Chase and two others that she did not recognize.  They stood around Rose, who was looking terrified.  Tears streamed down her cheeks and her eyes were red and puffy.  Her nose was running and her hair was not in the sleek curls it usually held.  She was bent over with her arms crossing her stomach in a protective move.

 

(Lily wondered what had happened after she and her friends left the day before.  Her main focus had been on getting away from the situation, and then on saving Scorpius.  But now she wished she had thought to send one of her cousins to check out the aftermath.)

 

Thomas was sneering at Rose, and Lily’s skin crawled in an automatic, empathetic response.  (She didn’t even need to be an empath to sense her cousin’s fear; it was that palpable.)  She wanted to feel some sort of happiness or triumph over the situation Rose found herself in, but some little voice in the back of her conscious mind told her that she was better than that.  “Thanks, Cham,” she muttered wryly.

 

“…No, no.  Rose is just going to have to go with us.  We can’t have her messing anything else up,” came Chase’s smarmy voice (and she was gratified to know that she had been right not to trust him.).

 

“I didn’t mess up though.  I did exactly what they said.  Ask Thomas!  He’ll tell you!”  McLaggen shifted uneasily and scuffled his feet.  Lily couldn’t see his eyes from where she stood, but she knew that he wasn’t going to step up.    

 

Chase pulled Rose upward, grabbed her hands, and pushed her to one of the lackeys.  Henchman one, as Lily dubbed him in her mind, took hold of Rose while henchman two cast a bondage charm on her wrists.

 

She struggled against them, screaming out, “No! No! But I did it! Dammit! I did what they said!”

 

“Someone should cast a muzzle on her,” one of the henchman muttered.  As soon as he said it, Rose stopped struggling and looked at Chase in dawning realization.

 

“I thought you were friends with Cham and Lily, though…”

 

“That just goes to show that you know nothing.  Come on, I have people that need to be answered to,” was Chase’s ominous reply.

 

Rose wouldn’t budge no matter how much they pushed and pulled her.  (Lily admired her just a tiny bit for that.)

 

Chase scowled.  “You’ll find that I am not above using magic to get you to do what I want.  You’ll also find that I couldn’t care less about what type of effect that magic will have on your unborn child.”  He pointed his wand at her stomach, moved into her personal space, and hissed, “Get moving, Weasley.”

 

Rose made a last-ditch effort to get out of her predicament.  “Okay, but think about this for just a second, someone will miss me and come looking.  They saw me leave with you, so they’ll know that _you_ had something to do with it.”  Lily could almost feel the sob that was hitched in Rose’s throat. 

 

Chase grinned and ran a finger down her cheek, “I’m counting on it.”

 

A sudden movement against Lily’s leg caused her to jump against the tent, making the fabric rustle.  She looked down to see a silver cat purring and rubbing against her.  She nudged it gingerly out of the way.

 

Chase jerked his head in the direction of the sound.  He had a vain hope that the person he truly wanted to capture would stumble into this and save him time.  But – no.

 

_‘Damn.’_ “Get moving, guys.  And don’t you worry, Rosie.  You won’t be our guest for too long.”

 

Four cracks of apparition rent through the air as they disappeared.

 

_“Bloody f***-ing hell,” Lily whispered._

****

**_~SL~SL~SL~SL~_ **

****

Lily quite literally ran into Cham in her rush to get back to Ginny’s tree.  She knocked the blonde to the ground, falling on top of her, and then rolling off and into a standing position, wand at the ready.

 

“Whoa. Lils, just whoa.  It’s cool.  It’s me.  Chill,” Cham said, getting to her feet and using her hands in a placating manner.

 

“Cham?  What are you doing out here?  I thought you were staying with the others until I got back.”

 

“You’ve been gone for hours, Lily.”  Cham’s face was twisted in exasperation.  “Scorpius is begging to get out of there, and the others are about to go stir crazy.”  She took in Lily’s frazzled form, the windswept hair, heaving chest, fidgeting hands, and asked, “Why are you in such a hurry?  Did you find something out?”

 

Lily stalked past her, assuming she would follow.  “Of course I found something.  I was right all along.  Chase isn’t on our side at all.  He’s part of _Lux Lucis_ , or at least one of their underlings.  We need to get to the others.”

 

Cham hurried in front of Lily, and frowned at her.  They weren’t all that far from the tree now, and the others were spilling out watching Lily and Cham face off with one another.  “What do you mean, a part of _Lux Lucis_?  He’s one of the most trusted in our school, and one of the few who can walk in the Dream Realm.  He wouldn’t betray us like that.”

 

Lily sighed.  “I mean exactly that.  He and McLaggen and a couple of other idiots took off with Rose.  They apparated right out of my grandparents’ backyard.”

 

There was a gasp from the group.  “But, no,” Dominique piped in.  “You cannot apparate in or out of the Burrow.”

 

“Yeah, and you can’t apparate in or out of Hogwarts either, and yet I do it all the time,” Lily practically snarled.  Her cousins and friends stared at her wide-eyed.  “Good Merlin, you guys!  It’s not impossible, just incredibly difficult.  That’s all beside the point, though.  What I want to know is, why her?

 

She looked directly at Scorpius, moving toward him slowly, as if coming to a realization.  “It’s got something to do with you…  I know it does – I think I’ve always sort of known…” she murmured.  He leaned against a tree, his head cocked back, head to the sky and his eyes were closed.  He was pale and drawn and he looked thoroughly exhausted.  (Lily vaguely wanted to know what made them even contemplate saying that he was ready to leave.  It was clear to her that he wasn’t even near healthy enough yet.)

 

She grabbed his hand, making his eyes pop open, and she was grateful that for once he wasn’t projecting any of his thoughts. 

 

He stared at her, not sure what to think of her sudden contact.  “Wha  -“ he started.

 

“Don’t be ridiculous, Lily,” Albus interrupted.  “What could any of this possibly have to do with Scorpius.

 

“What indeed?” A voice asked happily from behind them.   They all turned to see Isabelle Zabini walking into the clearing.   “Well isn’t this a welcoming sight?  What have all of you been up to?”

 

To say that they were stunned would be an understatement.  “Wha  -“ Molly cleared her throat, tried again, and spoke for everybody when she asked, “What are you doing here?”

 

Isabelle’s grin widened.  She circled around them, coming to a stop in front of Scorpius and Lily.  “Well, well.  What happened to you?” She murmured.  She cupped his cheek in a playful gesture, making him cringe.

 

“I fell,” He quipped, and then in a tired voice, “What do you want?” 

 

Instead of answering him, she clapped her hands, grin widening, and making Lily think of the Cheshire cat. 

 

“I’m certain our precious ‘Lily Love’ has been taken good care of you.”  She moved the hand that had been cupping Scorpius’ cheek to trail down Lily’s arm.  Lily stiffened and pulled as far away as she could.  Scorpius wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her close to his side.  She shivered from the warmth of it, but tried not to let her pleasure show.

 

“Seriously Isabelle,” her voice snapped at the unwelcome guest, “What do you want?  How did you find us?”

 

Isabelle’s perfectly trimmed eyebrows rose in mock consternation.  “Don’t you know?  Oh, but I guess she just forgot to mention it then.”

 

“What?” Scorpius ground out.

 

Lily knew, in that moment, from the look of relish on Isabelle’s face, that whatever she was about to say would change Lily’s entire worldview.

 

“Cham invited me,” she grinned widely.  “Didn’t you recognize your best friend’s kitty patronus?”  She tsked and walked away.  Lily was shivering for an entirely different reason now.  She stared at Cham, trying to suss out what she was playing at, but the blonde was giving nothing away. 

 

Isabelle walked to the center of the group and placed a small stick on the ground.  She gestured for everyone to come closer, “Well, come on then.  Let’s not make this any more difficult than it already is.  You want to save your stupid cousin, and I happen to know where she is.”

 

“How do we know this isn’t a trap,” Albus asked.

 

“You don’t.  But I’ll tell you that I want no harm to come to my cousin,”  She glanced at Scorpius.  “Therefore, no harm can come to yours.  It’s a win-win for all of us.  Also, it would be a bad idea to confront the _Lux Lucis_ in their own dominion without any insider help.”

 

At their dubious looks, she qualified her statement with, “I”m the insider.”

 

_‘Marvelous,’ was Lily’s dry thought, and she was sure that Scorpius had squeezed her a little tighter for that._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and Kudos are love!


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